The Pajamas Story
I was an early convert to the PJ Media fold, but not without some effort. In the spring of 2005, I had my blog going (it was nearly four years old, which seemed ancient), a fairly lucrative deal with Henry Copeland’s BlogAds, and a rewarding sense of independence. So when Roger Simon and Charles Johnson called to suggest that I become part of some newfangled blog-network kind of thing, I was receptive, but I didn’t exactly leap at the opportunity right away. It took several more months, and many more phone calls, before I finally signed on.
As it turned out, I didn’t need to worry about my independence. From the first, somewhat bumpy launch as OSM (for “Open Source Media,” a name that, despite a search by trademark lawyers, turned out to have been taken) to today, when PJ Media is beating out many older and better-publicized sites for traffic and links, it’s just been blogging as usual, with the exception that Ed Driscoll will sometimes fix my typos if I’m offline for a while.
PJ Media did help with my multimedia projects, like the late, lamented Glenn & Helen Show podcast, and then, with the birth of Pajamas TV, with various video reports. I still shoot video myself, guerrilla-style, sometimes, as at the Harvard Law School constitutional convention conference last month, but now things are more professionally produced and edited sometimes and I’ve learned that it can be fun working with a team, as well as on your own. In fact, one of the things I’ve liked most about the whole Pajamas experience is having a team behind me when I want one, and being independent when I don’t.
Pajamas TV sounded a little too Hefneresque (not that there’s anything wrong with that!), so it quickly became PJTV, and now PJ Media is being “rebranded” as PJ Media. Well, people have been calling us “PJM” for short for a while already, so it’s not a big change and maybe we should have just gone all the way to three-letter nomenclature like the old networks. But whatever you call us, we’ll still be here, still doing what those old networks, and newspapers, don’t do.
Because where else will you find Spengler, Victor Davis Hanson, Richard Fernandez, Ed Driscoll and Michael Totten all side by side? Nowhere else!
I’ll continue to read every day. Thanks for your work.
Congrats, Glenn! Keep up the great work!!
I read many times per day too.
I remember listening in to the OSM “Launch Party”.
How fortunate are you that Roger is the top guy and not Charles?
Don’t miss a day. Appreciate PJM being here. Commenters here the smartist of all. Always leave a thank you to them mostly on Sundays when they all come out
to read the Sunday Mornings. PJM is the best and one of my favorites since I dumped MSM and 30 second sound bites. For information go to the net. It is the only place you will get news. ABCCBSNBCMSNBC are losing ground, filtered news stories and a lot of Pop Culture. The world is imploding and we get Martha Stewart’s daughter’s new book. Ugh. Thanks again guys.
xschild- hope you don’t mind if I echo your statements. (I was going towrite
almost the exact same things.)PJM has been very informative, and always broaden my views of subjects-many times expressing my heartfelt feelings in ways I may have never thought of- and with references- absolutely thrills me most days.
“.. the late, lamented Glenn & Helen Show podcast …”
I thought I hadn’t seen one of those for a while. They were good stuff, particularly when you had Messrs Bay and Dunnigan doing their information firehose thing. Why did you stop ?
what is it, exactly, that Pajamas Media does that regular outlets don’t do?
1) For the most part, reasonably unbiased reporting.
2) Intelligent commentary. Richard Fernandez educates you more in one blog post than Meet the Press does in a year.
There’s a start…
Different.
PJ’s comment section isn’t a trough of troll slime, for one thing.
Indeed! It’s actually worth reading, unlike that other conservative news outlet which has surrendered its comments section to the lowest common denominator on BOTH sides of the spectrum.
The irony is, we can comment here without any registration, and the comment section remains almost entirely free of spam, rudeness, and spoiled-brattiness.
That other site has draconian registration requirements, so intrusive that the only choice is to simply LIE, or surrender a great deal more personal information than any reasonable person should be asked to give. Ostensibly, this is to eliminate spam and to keep the discourse on a higher level. It completely fails.
Keep up the good work folks!
Which news outlet are you speaking of? Townhall? Freepers?
By ‘trollslime’ you mean people who disagree with you? There is little worthwhile about a chorus of agreement and pats on the back nor acting like lemmings.
For people in love with the idea of free speech there seems little love for it in the comments section. If conservatives are right 100% of the time then one is reduced to a bee defending the hive mentality.
Choose sides, sure, especially if one’s survival can be at stake such as in Israel. That is not an academic debate but a live slow motion war. Indeed, one could argue that the survival of America is at stake, the America that everyone wants to come to but are destroying in a similar slow-motion fashion.
But shouting down people who say, ‘Hey, we’re doing this wrong.’, and then slapping the troll/Soros operative on them is plain stupid. The conservative Right is fighting for the centrist vote in America and the way to that is not demonizing one’s opponent at every move but choosing where and when to fight.
The right to disagree is the right to be free and there must be freely given respect for that idea as well, not a grudging message from the Borg saying, ‘Speak is you must.’
Why assume the worst?
Perhaps he simply means the bad behaviour which is evident on most sites, from all viewpoints.
For example, on the site to which I referred earlier, much of the comment section is devoted to mindless copy & paste off-topic rants, usually from the left, and blog spam from one of “ours”, along with a lot of 8th grade level name calling from both sides, sprinkled with chitchat about ball games, and liberally spread with social garbage such as “signing off for the night”, “have a good weekend”, etc. etc.
That ‘trollslime’ simply doesn’t exist on PJM.
And that’s a good thing.
Exactly, Mark, thanks. It’s the tone, lack of cites and general lapse into vulgarity/obscenity to which I was referring.
No, Jane, it’s not about disagreement. Some of the most important changes in my own opinions have taken place through reasoned argument. One gives up on that happening in the comments of too many sites. Here at PJM, it’s not only possible, it has happened.
I’m not assuming the worst: I made a comment about the “Great ‘Checks In the Mail’ Obama Controversy” and half a dozen ganged up and said I was on Soros’ payroll or a troll.
In fact, having a great disdain for Obama, I merely disagreed and said he hadn’t done anything wrong on this particular topic which in my opinion was semantic gibberish and unfounded and unsourced accusations.
I’m right when I’m right, not when I’m wrong. If I say Obama is always wrong, who will listen other than lemmings when Obama IS wrong, which is most of the time but I think you get my point?
By their standard, this post is me trolling.
I tried to search for the article you mentioned, both here on PJM and on the web at large, and couldn’t find it; I wanted to see for myself how people reacted to you, such basic research being a must when discussing any topic, IMO.
However, I’ll wing it as best I can.
There will always be defensive reactions to certain topics, no matter where you go. If you furnished cites for your assertions, and were still ~attacked,~ then you at least should have the knowledge you tried to make a valid point.
MY point is this: The reactions here on PJM, defensive or otherwise, are worlds better in tone and substance than just about anywhere else I’ve gone. I’d far rather be called a Soros puppet than some of the unbelievable obscenities I’ve seen elsewhere (mostly lefty sites, but not always). One just can’t discuss anything in such an atmosphere.
For what it’s worth, you are not behaving like a troll IMO. (People really should think twice before applying that label.) Keep posting.
A strong voice in the wilderness of good, unbaised conservative thought.
Will always open Pajamas for a reference point in ongoing conservative discussions.
Keep up the fresh, innovative streaming of ideas and Pajamas’ (whatever the name)popularity will expand and grow with new subscribers.
pajamas is one of my first places to click, looking at my browser bookmarks. usually not that sensationalist, no “the ten biggest\most\least\stupidest\etc”, no premium section, no bs. keep up the good work, greetings from good old germany.
Too bad BlogAds/ PJM blog deal didn’t work better — I was hoping there would be a way to get a better blog network going.
The biggest open niche remains editing / choosing the best of what’s available.
A comment above by Jane Air talks about how most comment sections are chorus of agreements, including on PJM.
It would be great to highlight the “best” comment sections one finds.
For me, probably Marginal Revolution has the best, but it’s more focused on economics.
I haven’t found any Dem/ Leftist site where there is genuine discussion about ideas. Yglesias sometimes allows some, but his commenters are far stronger against dissent.
Have YOU found any good comment sites? Why not a poll?
Congratulations, Glenn. I love to comment here and my favorite voices of reason and analysis and information are here.
I have a way to move PJMedia onto cable, if you and Roger and the gang are interested. We can webcast to cable…and have an ability to place content in key locations.
I think you guys are heroes and have said so for some time. (you can look it up)
Of course, I am but a mere commenter…but will do everything in my power to mae PJMedia a success.
You are the best!
Glenn,
I just feel a little down when I think that you are the last of the “Four Horsemen of the Ablogalypse” who is still blogging.
Johnson & Sullivan went complete off-the-rails (Sullivan is now for all intents and purposes, a frothing Jew-hater), and DenBeste, brilliant as he is, somehow became too discombobulated over minor criticism, and then obsessed over a ridiculous topic (anime).
You’re the only one of the four left, Glenn. Don’t go lefty on us!
Great to see this post. I don’t agree with every poster on PJM but respect yur right to say it. I’ll be interested to see what is next for PJM!
I spend some time on this site every day.
PJM does a lot of things right, but mostly I think the writers present facts in a fairly unvarnished state, which is very rare these days. Accuracy counts, and I have had many opportunities in the last three years to contrast and compare PJM’s efforts with the alleged main stream guys, and not to the advantage of the old guard.
And, PJM has the added distinction of being able to laugh at some of the more bizzare antics of our beloved political class, rather than go into full on panties in a bunch outrage. Laughing at these folks is probably the most effective remedy. That, and voting.
PJM has come to provide a great home for the fringe choir better known as today by the name Tea party. On the other hand, Roger Simon, ED Driscoll, Roger Kimball, Victor Hanson, and Ron Radosh, representing the older more mature and restrained bloggers are a delight to read even though I disagree with them on many issues. Sadly, not all PJM bloggers are mature, restrained professionals adding to the value of the sites effort overall. PJM should monitor some of their bloggers behavior and develop a higher standard for those allowed to blog on the site. Other than the usual group of ‘attack dog’ commentors and a few less than professional bloggers, PJM is a great site to find some very good and professionally presented opinions.
Best wishes on into the future.
Well we sure no well that the MSM outlets (which includes FOX news as of late) are not going to shed ANY light on the FORGED Birth Certificate that Obama released on April 27th. You do remember that it was Joseph M. Newcomer, ONE expert in typewriters who pointed out the Dan Rather FORGERIES and the media pursued the evidence. Dan and Mary lost their jobs. Well, we have a whole lot of well qualified document experts who are willing to put their careers and reputation on line to expose the details of the FORGED April 27th document and NO MSM outlets will give them the time of day. WHY? WHY? WHY? State licensed Private Investigators have been investigating Obama’s FRAUDULENT SS# for a year or so and have a ton of evidence to back up their accusations and NO MSM coverage. Hell, the damn thing was FLAGGED by the Government Web Page that FLAGS FRAUDULENT SS#s to back up the already acquired evidence of the investigators, yet NO DAMN coverage. WHY? WHY? If you suppose to be like the ole TV journalists you need to prove yourself worthy and GET DAMN BUSY exposing this CRIMINAL/USURPER/UNDOCUMENTED WORKER in the WH.
Why do you accept advertising GIFs (Large Ones) on your home page and other inside pages for Progressive Insurance?
The name of that company is deliberate. The founder and CEO is one of the biggest progressive liberal muckrakers around and has contributed millions for left wing think tanks and 501(c)’s and is an ardent supporter and contributor to the Obama campaign and machine.
If PJ media had any ethics or principles, you would stop accepted Progressive Insurance’s ads on this website.