Blog bickering called poison to Democrats

Some say acrimony is rampant among liberal and progressive bloggers who debate the merits of the Democratic presidential candidates almost nonstop — the divisiveness potentially exacting a toll on the party itself.

Fox News host Bill O’Reilly yesterday cited both “venom” and “liberals brutalizing liberals” on Web sites partial to either Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton or Sen. Barack Obama.

Vitriol is brewing among Democrats, Mr. O’Reilly said, singling out the Daily Kos in particular as a “hateful left-wing Web site” that slammed Mrs. Clinton as a “coward” and “degenerative liar,” among other things.

Markos Moulitsas, who founded the site six years ago, denies there’s a political breach among his online brethren.

“While I’m touched by Bill O’Reilly’s concern for our party, tell him not to worry. Unlike his show, where critics have their mics cut off and escorted out by Fox security, us progressive bloggers have no problem debating and disagreeing with each other,” Mr. Moulitsas said yesterday.

“This all strikes me as in-house fighting — a family feud,” said Lucianne Goldberg, whose own site, conservative-leaning Lucianne.com, receives an average 26 million visitors a month.

“There’s some of that type of rivalry going on here between people who love John McCain and those who think he’s just not conservative enough. McCain, anti-McCain — there’s a lot of it,” Mrs. Goldberg added.

“We are seeing the major blogs splitting into pro-Obama and pro-Clinton sites. There’s a noticeable trend among those who favor Obama to go to Daily Kos, and for the Clinton fans to go to [blogger] Taylor Marsh,” said Ian Faerstein, editor and writer for “The Blogometer,” a frequently updated gauge of the blogosphere psyche on National Journal’s Hotline, a daily online political briefing.

Things get particularly testy in “threads” of discussion posted by visitors to the sites, he said.

Indeed. On March 14, a frequent female blogger at the Daily Kos announced she would no longer contribute to the site, noting in an open letter: “I’ve decided to go on ‘strike’ and will refrain from posting here as long as the administrators allow the more disruptive members of our community to trash Hillary Clinton and distort her record without any fear of consequence or retribution.”

But Mr. Faerstein downplays the idea that “front page” bloggers such as Mr. Moulitsas or Ms. Marsh are locked in mortal combat.

“The front-pagers will unite with the front-runner when the time comes,” Mr. Faerstein said.

Some have their own issues, though.

“The Democratic primary race has revealed a secret sexism among some of the biggest and most elite male-run blogs that has obliterated their credibility. Let’s just say, ‘Clinton derangement syndrome’ is no longer simply confined to conservatives,” Ms. Marsh said yesterday.

Former Democratic National Committee Chairman Steven Grossman characterized the online disagreements as a “microcosm” and a “subset” of the conflicting passions of Obama and Clinton supporters that eddy around the political landscape.

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