Pajamas Media: Changing the Subject

One of the classic ploys of regimes not doing well is to change the subject by picking a fight with some foreign enemy, inciting the homies to redirect the anger that would otherwise be aimed at them at somebody else.

Pajamas Media, which has incurred the wrath and ridicule of the blogging world for its profligacy, lack of focus, and crude attempt to control blogging, has a new series, complete with promotional ads on such sites as Instapundit. "Should the United Nations Control the Internet?" the advertisement I see on Glenn Reynolds' site asks.

This is classic misdirection. "We're not the villains," the PJM/OSM/PJM crew is telling us, "It's that bad old United Nations. You know how most of you bloggers hate that outfit. Look, here's a picture of Kofi Annan to remind you."

Yes, there will be those continuing to press for United Nations control of the Internet. But this is hardly a hot topic now. A vote against ceding US control of the web to the UN happened just last week.

Please, Pajamas folks, figure out what you're doing or better yet, just admit that you had no idea what your whole enterprise was about in the first place--other than awkwardly trying to control people's access to blogs and to create a blogging elite--and close up shop.

From where I sit, a far more urgent question to ask is, "Should Pajamas Take Control of the Blogosphere?" Because that appears to be what they want to do. Happily, their lack of clarity about how to go about doing that has thus far thwarted them.

BACKGROUND FOR THIS PIECE: See here.