PARANOIA STRIKES DEEP: A reader emails:

A thought occurred to me as I read bloggers who have done an about-face politically, which should be a very profound, well thought-out action. George Soros has said he is spending 10 million dollars to defeat President Bush and Teresa Heinz has said she will release soft money to fight for her husband’s reelection. How are we to know these about-face bloggers have not been recipients of some of this money? This could mean the end of bloggers before the concept really gets off the ground. That would be very sad. Is there some way to prevent this? I’ve turned to them in place of the mainstream media for my news but now I wonder if they are reliable.

I don’t know what bloggers the reader has in mind, and where we’ve seen changes it’s generally been because the Administration stepped on somebody’s pet issue; I can’t really think of an unexplained about-face.

But I guess people could buy off bloggers, though if there were a campaign for that I’d think that someone might have approached me, which certainly hasn’t happened. [Maybe you’re too obviously incorruptible! — Ed. That must be it.] And anyway, if a blogger stops making sense to his/her readers, those readers will probably just move on, and corruption too subtle to have that effect would probably also be too subtle to be worth paying for.

At any rate, the sad truth is that bloggers, despite their growing influence, probably aren’t worth bribing.

UPDATE: They say that everyone has his price, but Jay Manifold wants to be sure there’s no mistake about his. And he’s not the only blogger looking for some of that “sweet payoff cash.” I’m sure it would turn to ashes in your mouth, er, wallet.

ANOTHER UPDATE: What price integrity? $387.42, in this case.