This is guerilla marketing at its most basic and has no relevance to the MSM's faults.

To quote from Willie Wonka:

"strike that, reverse it."

(I don't see any trolls either.)

I think the following Willie Wonka gem describes very well the MSM's role our public discourse. It could serve as an acceptance speech by any major MSM outlet for some award or other:

There's no earthly way of knowing
Which direction we are going
There's no knowing where we're rowing
Or which way the river's flowing
Is it raining?
Is it snowing?
Is a hurricane a-blowing?
Not a speck of light is showing
So the danger must be growing
Are the fires of hell a-glowing?
Is the grisly reaper mowing?
Yes, the danger must be growing
For the rowers keep on rowing
And they're certainly not showing
Any signs that they are slowing!

Many times. (I had my eyes closed when I wrote it.)

Thanks for the reminder. No more feeding the trolls for me today.

Some people are uncomfortable with promotional activities and selling things. To be honest, I have some discomfort doing it. But political writing only matters if it makes an impact, and the reality is, to make it have an impact, doing things of this sort is necessary.

That goes for every other form of social and political commentary, Glenn. There was a time in the early 60s when the progressive voices were being heard, not through the MSM, but in the music and fiction and poetry of the times. Politically active artists, students and minorities drove the culture from the bottom up. The voices that the politicians of the 60s were listening to were the voices of youth, minorities and the poor and oppressed. The same thing happened during and after each of the wars of the last century. It was always the musicians, writers, artists, philosophers and poets who spoke truth to power, even if they lost their jobs or went to prison for it.

There are many contemporary progressive voices that need to be heard today: journalists, artists, poets, musicians, writers, movie makers. They are discovered by those who seek them out. Their names become known in the larger society as a result of the shared activity of discovering them. All of this occurs because of the Internet.

There is nothing to apologize for. And there is nothing that you or any other person could do that could possibly be better than to use the Internet to get the word out. You should do it to maximum effect.

For the anarcho-syndicalists, libertarians, capitalists and socialists out there: Long live the Internet!

And for the spiritual and religious types: God bless the Internet!

The Internet is one of the greatest forces for democracy and free speech in the world today.

BTW, Digby just made a similar comment about her right to write about whatever she wants to write about.

I had one of these t-shirts ten years ago. It was one of my favorites. I believed it then. I believe it now.

http://www.screamingmanglobal.com/store/product53.html

She's got more integrity in her little finger that the entire executive branch of this government (measured as biomass).

Well, this administration will never know whether or not diplomacy really works, will it?

Re your prison comparison:

On June 30, 2006--

-- 2,245,189 prisoners were held in Federal or State prisons or in local jails -- an increase of 2.8% from midyear 2005, less than the average annual growth of 3.4% since yearend 1995.

-- there were an estimated 497 prison inmates per 100,000 U.S. residents -- up from 411 at yearend 1995.

-- the number of women under the jurisdiction of State or Federal prison authorities increased 4.8% from midyear 2005, reaching 111,403 and the number of men rose 2.7%, totaling 1,445,115.

At yearend 2005 there were 3,145 black male sentenced prison inmates per 100,000 black males in the United States, compared to 1,244 Hispanic male inmates per 100,000 Hispanic males and 471 white male inmates per 100,000 white males.

http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/prisons.htm

Does that mean black males are six times more criminal than white males are and three times more criminal than Hispanic males are, or does that mean those with more money and power have to worry a lot less about going to jail than those with less money and power? And as for those with the most money and power -- they rarely have to go to jail at all, no matter what crimes they commit (Hint: Libby), do they?

And as everyone should know, prisons are are huge plum for rural Republican voters:

A different story on the same topic appeared under the title "Ionia Finds Stability in Prisons" in the Detroit News just 12 days before Kilborn’s piece. It told the enlightening tale of how the semi-rural Michigan town of Ionia, located halfway between Lansing and Grand Rapids, had recently become one of the state's fastest growing and "most improved" communities thanks its five thriving penitentiaries together employing 1,584 workers who collectively made $102 million a year. "The state's urban centers dump their felons," the Detroit News reported, "in prison towns and forget about them. Suburbs balk at housing felons, envisioning escapees trampling through their gardens and hiding out in their tool sheds." But "Ionia," the paper noted, "sees things from the other end of the spectrum. The prisons bring, of all things, security." According to Detroit News reporter Francis Donnelly, Ionia’s “penitentiaries, five veritable Great Lakes of cash, provide sustenance to every sector of [Ionia’s] once-dry economy: jobs for residents, customers for stores, revenue for the city government,” including “nearly $1.2 million of the city’s $3.8 million budget”

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=12253