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original Daily Kos logo
original Daily Kos logo

Daily Kos (IPA: [koʊs]) is an American political weblog aimed at Democrats, liberals, and progressives. Run by Markos Moulitsas Zúniga (Kos from the last syllable of his first name, often mispronounced), a United States Army veteran, it has an average weekday traffic of 463,000 visits[1], and has between 14 million and 24 million visits per month.[2]

General

Features

Daily Kos is not a standard blog, but an interactive site powered by the collaborative media application Scoop, which allows all registered members to maintain blogs within the site. Moulitsas and a small group of selected users post entries directly to the front page; other users can post "diaries," whose titles appear on the front page in reverse chronological order. These are identical in format to the main posts, and can advance to "recommended diary" status by user vote, or can be promoted to the front page by the primary contributors. The recommended diaries appear above the main diary listing. Each member can follow preferred diaries by setting up a "hotlist" and can also search the accumulated diaries by subject-matter tags. [1]

Daily Kos also contains permanent articles, glossaries, and other content. The site is sustained by advertising, mostly for activists, political candidates and books.

dKosopedia

In April 2004, it started dKosopedia.com, a political wiki to compile useful information for netroots efforts, with its contents licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It applies open politics methods specifically inspired by George Lakoff's book Moral Politics. Its initial impetus was the compilation of FOIA records for the ACLU case against Geneva Convention violations at the Guantanamo Bay prisoner of war camp. Some of its conventions are copied from Wikipedia and other projects in the GFDL corpus, including article names for neutral or non-controversial concepts like the names of elections.

Insightful DailyKos diaries are often adapted into dKosopedia articles. Compilation of timelines, and profiles on particularly notorious Republicans, are other major projects.

Daily Kos is the largest Scoop site, having surpassed Kuro5hin. The creator of Scoop, Rusty Foster, was a technology consultant for Moulitsas's former company, Armstrong Zúniga. Armstrong Zuniga was dissolved at the end of 2004.

Daily Kos coexists happily with other liberal blogs like Democratic Underground, even to the point of helping compile progressive blogs by region on its site. However, DailyKos is definitely run by one person.

Central position of Markos

"You are the one being interviewed, your screen name is the same as the site name and everyone comes to you for answers. so, even though you are not the 'leader,' you own this site, co-author of the book, are the mouthpiece talking about all of it on television and the face others use to personafy the movement. so, in a way, you are the leader, even if not intended or even in a position of authority in a traditional sense."[3]

Campaign fundraising

During the 2004 U.S. election campaign, Daily Kos readers gave approximately $500,000 in user donations to fifteen Democratic candidates denoted as most needing funds. The candidates were Tony Miller, Ben Konop, Dan Mongiardo, Richard Romero, Samara Barend, Jeff Seemann, Nancy Farmer, Ginny Schrader, Jan Schneider, Lois Murphy, Jim Newberry, Brad Carson, Tony Knowles, Stan Matsunaka and Richard Morrison. All of these candidates lost. However, Moulitsas had stated that he was deliberately selecting candidates who were not receiving significant financial support from other sources; candidates who were expected to win — or even be competitive — were, by and large, already being funded by the DNC, DCCC, and other national and regional organizations.[citation needed]

He also argued that the campaign was successful in that it forced several Republican incumbents to spend time and money defending "safe" seats that they had never had to defend before. For example, between Tom DeLay in Texas and Marilyn Musgrave in Colorado, Moulitsas calculates that the seed money provided by the blog's fundraising tied up well over ten times as much GOP money in return, and kept two of the GOP's most prolific fundraisers back home campaigning in their own districts for several weeks each, rather than roaming the country raising money for other candidates, as they had in past elections. At least two of his candidates came exceptionally close to winning what would have been significant upsets.

YearlyKos convention

Main article: YearlyKos

In June 2006, members of Daily Kos organized the first ever political blogger convention, called YearlyKos, in Las Vegas, Nevada. The event was attended by approximately 1000[4] bloggers and featured appearances by prominent Democrats such as Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, California Senator Barbara Boxer, General Wesley Clark, Governors Mark Warner, Bill Richardson, Tom Vilsack and DNC Chair Howard Dean. The event was widely covered in the traditional media including Capitol Hill Blue[5], The Boston Globe[6] and MSNBC[7]. C-Span also carried portions of the convention[8].

The event was generally[9] considered a success by the Daily Kos membership. YearlyKos 2007 has been announced for Chicago in August 2007.[10]

Controversies

Dean campaign consultancy

In 2003, Moulitsas was retained by the Howard Dean campaign as a technical advisor, an arrangement he disclosed on the site the next day.[11] A year and a half later, when Daily Kos criticized Armstrong Williams for accepting money to promote George W. Bush's education agenda (including the No Child Left Behind Act), The Wall Street Journal reported on the payment to Moulitsas as well as a similar payment to Jerome Armstrong. [2]. The Journal cited Zephyr Teachout, Director of Internet Organizing for Dean's campaign, who posted on the subject in her blog.[citation needed] Teachout said,

On Dean’s campaign, we paid Markos and Jerome Armstrong as consultants, largely in order to ensure that they said positive things about Dean. We paid them over twice as much as we paid two staffers of similar backgrounds, and they had several other clients.
While they ended up also providing useful advice, the initial reason for our outreach was explicitly to buy their airtime. To be very clear, they never committed to supporting Dean for the payment -- but it was very clearly, internally, our goal.

The Journal reporters have been criticized for equating the two events (Moulitsas and Armstrong were not journalists) and for "burying" deep in the article the information that Moulitsas had promptly — and prominently — disclosed the payment, and that Armstrong had stopped blogging entirely while working for Dean.[12] In addition, Joe Trippi and other prominent former Dean campaign officials have disputed Zephyr Teachout's statements.[citation needed] Trippi explained in an interview with Dave Winer that he wanted Kos so that Kos wouldn't go work for Clark or anyone else.[13]

Meanwhile, Chris Suellentrop of Slate criticized Moulitsas not for taking money from the Dean campaign — something he told his readers about — but for working as a political consultant for candidates for whom he raised money on his site.[14] Moulitsas has refused to disclose the names of his clients, citing non-disclosure agreements signed with the candidates in question; on the other hand, neither his name nor that of Armstrong Zúniga LLC has been reported in the Federal Election Commission financial disclosure forms of any of the "Kos Dozen" candidates. In addition, Jerome Armstrong has specifically denied that Armstrong Zúniga did any consulting work for those candidates[citation needed], and Suellentrop has provided no evidence to back his claim.

Fallujah comments

Daily Kos attracted some controversy in April 2004 by publishing comments about the killings of four private military contractors in Fallujah, Iraq that many considered to be insensitive:

Let the people see what war is like. This isn’t an Xbox game. There are real repercussions to Bush’s folly. That said, I feel nothing over the death of merceneries. [sic] They aren’t in Iraq because of orders, or because they are there trying to help the people make Iraq a better place. They are there to wage war for profit. Screw them.[15]

The post was widely criticized on a number of conservative and liberal blogs.[citation needed] John Kerry's official blog removed a link to his blog in response.[citation needed] Moulitsas later apologized, attributing his remarks to anger that the Blackwater employees in Fallujah were given more attention than the five marines who were killed on the same day, as well as to childhood memories of warfare in El Salvador.[16]

Contributors

Prominent contributors

Numerous political figures including consultants, candidates, and sitting members of Congress use Daily Kos to publish frequent or occasional content:

Current officeholders
Former officeholders
Current candidates
Former candidates
Consultants
Commentators

Guest bloggers

Beginning in 2003, as his blog expanded to a community, Kos has appointed four or five "guest bloggers" (also called "front page diarists" and "contributing editors") who are selected from the community and tasked with regular contributions on the front page (without needing to have their articles recommended or promoted).

  • 2003: Billmon; Melanie; Steve Gilliard; RonK; Steve Soto
  • 2004: DemFromCT; DHinMI; Meteor Blades; Theoria; Trapper John
  • 2005: Armando; DavidNYC; Hunter; Kid Oakland; Plutonium Page[17]
  • 2006: Georgia10; SusanG; Superrible; Darksyde; McJoan[18]

Additionally, while on the promotional tour for Crashing the Gate, Kos turned over much of the day-to-day management to the 2006 guest bloggers. Emeritus guest bloggers have frequently retained some privileges depending on circumstances, but are not expected to post as often.

Armando

Armando was a front-page diarist at Daily Kos who took a prominent role during Moulitsas' book hiatus in 2005 and was well known for his foreign policy and legal analysis. He also had his own political blogging website, Swords Crossed, and was a guest political commentator in a wide variety of media outlets, including The Majority Report and Talking Points Memo Cafe. After his identity and details of his legal career were made widely known, he announced his departure from Daily Kos in June 2006, citing loss of anonymity.[19] However, his new tagline states that he will begin blogging again in December 2006.

DarkSyde

DarkSyde is the "nom de net" of another contributor who posts anonymously on the front page of Daily Kos and a blog called "Unscrewing the Inscrutable". He is best known as a science writer with specific attention paid to biology, astronomy, and political issues such as creationism or climate change. In particular, DarkSyde's Hurricane Katrina diaries were widely read during the storm and in the immediate aftermath. They are included in a collection of science articles in the e-book Kosmos: You Are Here, co-written with science fiction novelist Mark Sumner and illustrated by paleowildlife artist Carl Buell. All the contributors to Kosmos donated the proceeds to fund a blogging convention called YearlyKos.

Other notable diarists

Bill in Portland Maine

Bill in Portland Maine is a front page regular, best known for his recurring Cheers & Jeers feature, in which he bestows plaudits and brickbats on various newsmakers. Cheers & Jeers, which first appeared on Daily Kos on 9 December 2003, has evolved into a mini-community within the larger Daily Kos community, in which members post announcements about weddings, engagements, births, deaths, pet news, and other personal items, as well as sharing their own particular plaudits and brickbats.

Little is known about Bill in Portland Maine (or BiPM as he is known to his fellow Kossacks) other than his first name and approximate location, which seems to be somewhere in or near the city of Portland, Maine. He lives with his partner Michael (known as "Common Sense Mainer"), a cat named Vegas, and his beloved chocolate lab, Molly.

The Scotty Show

In December 2005, a Daily Kos poster known as karateexplosions began fisking White House spokesman Scott McClellan's daily press briefings under the general title The Scotty Show. Reporters questions and comments were rendered in italics, McClellan's responses appeared in bold, and KE's "English translations" of McClellan's responses followed in plain text. The Scotty Show was also cross-posted to KE's blog, "The KE Report". Although the Scotty Show attracted little attention at first, in late December the feature suddenly began to appear among the Recommended Diaries, and has continued to do so ever since. Like Bill in Portland Maine's "Cheers and Jeers" feature, the Scotty Show has attracted its own mini-community among Daily Kos readers, who look forward to continuing to follow the New Scotty Show - Featuring Tony Snow.

Maryscott O'Connor

Maryscott O'Connor is a Daily Kos member who crossposts to her own community, My Left Wing. In April 2006 she was profiled in the Washington Post as "one of the angriest" of the "Angry Left".[20] O'Connor and other bloggers objected to her portrayal.[21][22]

  • MotherTalkers is another "Daily Kos Community" focusing on the intersection of motherhood and politics.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Daily Kos: Site Summary". Sitemeter. Retrieved 2006-10-04.
  2. ^ "Daily Kos: This Year's Visits by Month". Sitemeter. Retrieved 2006-10-04.
  3. ^ kos (2006-06-14). "It's all about me". Daily Kos. Retrieved 2006-10-04. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  4. ^ Bernstein, David S. (2006-06-21). "How to neuter the Republicans". The Phoenix. Retrieved 2006-07-19. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  5. ^ Thompson, Doug (2006-07-16). "On second thought..." Capitol Hill Blue. Retrieved 2006-07-19. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  6. ^ Grynbaum, Michael M. (2006-07-06). "Bloggers battle old-school media for political clout". Boston Globe. Retrieved 2006-07-19. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  7. ^ Curry, Tom (2006-06-16). "Warner looks left, looks right, looks toward '08". MSNBC. Retrieved 2006-07-19]]. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help)
  8. ^ C-Span,Accessed July 19, 2006
  9. ^ Yearly Kos Tag, Listing of Diaries on Daily Kos accessed July 19, 2006
  10. ^ YearlyKos (2006-10-03). "And the YearlyKos 2007 location is..." Daily Kos. Retrieved 2006-10-04. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  11. ^ "Full Disclosure". Daily Kos. 2003-06-09. Retrieved 2006-10-05. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  12. ^ Montopoli, Brian (2005-01-14). "It's a Pig, Anyway You Look at It". Columbia Journalism Review. Retrieved 2006-10-04. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  13. ^ Spider Jerusalem (2005-01-15). "TRANSCRIPT: Dave Winer interviews Trippi on WSJ story & blogging ethics (with poll)". Daily Kos. Retrieved 2006-10-04. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  14. ^ Suellentrop, Chris (2005-01-14). "Blogging for Dollars". Slate. Retrieved 2006-10-04. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  15. ^ kos (2004-04-01). "Every death should be on the front page". Daily Kos. Retrieved 2006-10-04. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  16. ^ kos (2004-04-02). "Mercenaries, war, and my childhood". Daily Kos. Retrieved 2006-10-04. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  17. ^ kos (2005-12-06). "Changing of the Guard". Daily Kos. Retrieved 2006-10-05. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  18. ^ kos (2005-12-12). "The 2006 class of guest bloggers". Retrieved 2006-10-05. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  19. ^ Armando (2006-06-07). "Blogging Anonymity". Daily Kos. Retrieved 2006-10-04. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  20. ^ Finkel, David (2006-04-15). "The Left, Online and Outraged". Washington Post. p. A01. Retrieved 2006-10-04. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  21. ^ Greenwald, Glenn (2006-04-15). "Mistaking caricature and generalization for journalism". Unclaimed Territory. Retrieved 2006-10-04. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  22. ^ Klein, Ezra (2006-04-15). "How Angry Are We?". Tomorrow's Media Conspiracy Today. Retrieved 2006-10-04. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
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