This was hardly a surprise
Want to know which side of the blogosphere uses the most profanity? Well someone actually did the "research" (H/T Hugh Hewitt)
"But how different are the Rightosphere and Leftosphere when it comes to "dirty" language? Which side produces the most profanity-laced diatribes? Via Instapundit, I happened upon this interesting challenge from InstaPunk:
I propose an exercise to be performed by those who have the software and expertise to carry it out. The exercise is this: Search six months' worth of content, posts and comments, of the 20 most popular blogs on the right and the left. The search criteria are George Carlin's infamous '7 Dirty Words.' [Click this link for the list of expletives.]And this is what I found, using what I deemed -- through a mix of TTLB and 2006's Weblog Award lists -- to be the 18 biggest Lefty blogs, and 22 biggest Righty blogs. I couldn't account for the 6-month time period, and I even gave the Lefty blogs a 4 blog advantage. But it didn't make much of a difference.
So how much more does the Left use Carlin's "seven words" versus the Right? According to my calculations, try somewhere in the range of 18-to-1."
18 to 1 wow - I didn't even think it was that bad. You have to follow the link for the details, but the blogs searched included DailyKos (146000 instances), Huffpo (109000 instances), Wonkette (78200 instances) and MyDD (30400 instances) from the left and Powerline (68 instances, LGF (230 instances), Instapundit (121 instances) and Michelle Malkin (103 instances) from the right. But wait...there's more.
"Great point by reader Joe.
What? No Democratic Underground? No IndyMedia? No FreeRepublic? No Townhall? No FrontPageMag?
And thus, the numbers:
Democratic Underground: 947,000
IndyMedia: 206,000
FreeRepublic: 4010
TownHall.com (minus HH blog): 156
FrontPageMag: 11,800
It only gets worse... 1537788-to-37285. 41-to-1. Holy mackeral."
41 to 1. Now we know just who is "elevating" the discussion.
"But how different are the Rightosphere and Leftosphere when it comes to "dirty" language? Which side produces the most profanity-laced diatribes? Via Instapundit, I happened upon this interesting challenge from InstaPunk:
I propose an exercise to be performed by those who have the software and expertise to carry it out. The exercise is this: Search six months' worth of content, posts and comments, of the 20 most popular blogs on the right and the left. The search criteria are George Carlin's infamous '7 Dirty Words.' [Click this link for the list of expletives.]And this is what I found, using what I deemed -- through a mix of TTLB and 2006's Weblog Award lists -- to be the 18 biggest Lefty blogs, and 22 biggest Righty blogs. I couldn't account for the 6-month time period, and I even gave the Lefty blogs a 4 blog advantage. But it didn't make much of a difference.
So how much more does the Left use Carlin's "seven words" versus the Right? According to my calculations, try somewhere in the range of 18-to-1."
18 to 1 wow - I didn't even think it was that bad. You have to follow the link for the details, but the blogs searched included DailyKos (146000 instances), Huffpo (109000 instances), Wonkette (78200 instances) and MyDD (30400 instances) from the left and Powerline (68 instances, LGF (230 instances), Instapundit (121 instances) and Michelle Malkin (103 instances) from the right. But wait...there's more.
"Great point by reader Joe.
What? No Democratic Underground? No IndyMedia? No FreeRepublic? No Townhall? No FrontPageMag?
And thus, the numbers:
Democratic Underground: 947,000
IndyMedia: 206,000
FreeRepublic: 4010
TownHall.com (minus HH blog): 156
FrontPageMag: 11,800
It only gets worse... 1537788-to-37285. 41-to-1. Holy mackeral."
41 to 1. Now we know just who is "elevating" the discussion.
Labels: Bloggers and Blogging
posted by The Lady Logician at
8:58 PM
16 Comments:
No S*@#?
By
Kermit, at 8:20 AM
Hindrocket of powerline just sends profanity laced emails to those who write him. He won the City Pages "Best Meltdown" award for one such email.
By
lloydletta, at 8:27 AM
"We let children die because they don't have health insurance, but we don't use swear words!"
Your morality is completley underwhelming, Lady.
By
Anonymous, at 8:27 PM
So, how many children do YOU buy health insurance for, anonymous? Sorry to hear your check-writing hand is in a cast.
How about the morality of stealing the income I would use to buy health insurance for my kids, so that "you" can feel good about having "done something" about what you FEEL is a problem?
J. Ewing
By
Anonymous, at 9:44 AM
Eva,
On another thread you and I were talking about Swiftee. I would say that Swiftee falls into the same category as our friend Anonymous here. Both are just out to snark and it is best to ignore them both.
LL
By
The Lady Logician, at 3:55 PM
Wasn't it the right-wing nutjob Ann Coulter who just referred to a Democratic Presidential candidate as a "faggot"?
Sorry lady, but I'm not buying your argument that the left is nastier than the right. Not while vicious right wing hatemongers like Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, David Horowitz and Sean Hannity are around.
By
Anonymous, at 10:57 AM
Yes, Al Franken, David Letterman, etc. are such civil human beings.
We got a regular pot & kettle convention, don't we?
By
Kermit, at 1:08 PM
"We got a regular pot & kettle convention, don't we?"
My point exactly Kermit. Franken uses inflammatory rhetoric sometimes, but he's nothing compared with Coulter and Limbaugh. And you actually think David Letterman is bad? He's a comedian who pokes fun at Bush just like he poked fun at Clinton when Clinton was President. Comedians do that, you know.
By
Anonymous, at 6:25 PM
Hey skipper - where ya been?
Regarding Ann Coulter - yes she did use a very deragatory word and the right AND left blogosphere is rebuking her for it. All three announced candidates have rebuked her. So really you picked the poorest of examples to make your point.
I'll see your Rush, Sean and David H with Jeannne Garafolo, Amanda Marcotte, Randi Rhodes AND Sam Seder.
Saying both sides do it does NOTHING to improve the discussion. It is only until we get off that "well you do it too" tit for tat that we will ever be able to have civil discussion.
LL
By
The Lady Logician, at 7:04 PM
Come now, LL. With the overwhelming proof in your hands, you're going to agree with the preposterous notion that "your side does it, too"? Balderdash. (and I can say that, can't I?) It's the same old liberal "cut and run." Rather than defend their own, they demand that the right defend against something, anything, real or imagined. Rush Limbaugh has never used one of the 7 words in question on the air, but his name is trotted out at every opportunity, nonetheless. I don't know about you, but it is almost funny watching the left go apoplectic (and profane) at his most innocuous commentary. It's humor, just like Al Franken only funny! Get it?
Sorry, liberals, but those tired old tactics won't work with this radical right-winger. If you want your complaints taken seriously, clean up your own act first.
J. Ewing
By
Anonymous, at 10:00 AM
J.Ewing,
In my utopia both sides would clean up their acts. Sadly, we know that will never happen because the left wants to put people like Swiftee in the same category as those who call for the DEATH of a sitting President (which legally BTW is treason and yet no one has been jailed on that by this administration that enjoys trampling the Bill of Rights...)
By
The Lady Logician, at 10:44 AM
And I'm sure that no right wingers ever openly wished for Clinton's death while he was President. The blog comments concerning Cheney were stopped promptly and properly so. The right's character assassination of the left continues unabated. Maybe they don't use Carlin's seven magic words, but the right uses words like traitor and treason with impunity, equalting dissent against Bush/Cheney with disloyalty.
As to Limbaugh, who cares if he doesn't swear? He lies with impunity. Yet many right wingers hang on his every word as reflected by his ratings. Right wingers crow on about the failure of Air America. Maybe that reflects the left's desire for substance rather than the inflammatory, hatemongering rhetoric that holds so much appeal for many on the right.
By
Anonymous, at 11:05 AM
"And I'm sure that no right wingers ever openly wished for Clinton's death while he was President. "
None that I ever read or listened to did. Oh for sure, they wanted him removed from office for lying under oath, but NONE of them ever called for the President's assisination!
"As to Limbaugh, who cares if he doesn't swear? He lies with impunity"
Let's see some proof for that allegation Skipper.
Yeah a lot of right wingers cheered when Air America went off of the air, but it was because their programming was non-stop "Bush s*cks, Bush lied, Bush s*cks, Bush lied". If that is your idea of substance Skipper....
BTW - I missed your comments the last two weeks. Glad to have you back.
LL
By
The Lady Logician, at 1:04 PM
It's good to be back. Thanks.
By
Anonymous, at 2:59 PM
David Letterman is a very, very, VERY angry liberal who tries to mask his rage. Doesn't work.
Then you got the human pond scum Bill Maher. He's all yours, libs. And let's not forget that incredibly talented musician Ricki Lee Jones who said "I don't want George Bush to be assassinated, but would it be such a bad thing?"
"Right wingers crow on about the failure of Air America."
No, we predicted it. Satisfaction is sweet.
"Maybe that reflects the left's desire for substance rather than the inflammatory, hatemongering rhetoric that holds so much appeal for many on the right."
No, it reflects the Lefts total ignorance of things like market forces, substance, real debate and how totally unappealing spittle flecked oratory really is.
But that's just my "inflammatory, hatemongering" opinion.
By
Kermit, at 8:03 PM
The nice thing about this study, I think, is that we should be able to extrapolate from the "seven words" to some sort of general observations about leftist commenters. With such an overwhelming -- 41:1 -- difference, it is simply a silly argument to say "the right does it too." You don't use those words in a highly principled debate about the great issues. If you use those words, you're hatin' somebody.
The left can rant all it wants about how Limbaugh or Bush "lies" or "hates," but the vast majority of that is simply the left being offended (or feigning offense), or being unable to rationally refute what is being said. From there it is one short step to profane invective. That truth is now clear for all to see.
Yes, both sides can do better, and should. But in solving any problem, one usually starts on the biggest contributing factor. In this case, that's the 98% coming from the left, not the 2% coming from the right.
J. Ewing
By
Anonymous, at 10:18 PM
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