Matt Gunterman June 5th, 2007

The Courier-Journal has this story from Joseph Gerth on the possibility that the attorney general’s office will pursue an investigation of how right-wing blogger Brett Hall obtained phone records that he’s using against Democratic candidates.

When I was collecting stats for the snapshot of the Kentucky blogosphere I made this weekend, which compared the influences of the state’s lefty and righty blogospheres, I came across Brett Hall’s KYPolitics.org (I’m not giving it the justice of having an active link). I had forgotten all about it, and hardly any of the right-wing bloggers in the state link to him. And, his blog didn’t make the cut for my comparison because it only has a Google PageRank of 3 and it doesn’t even register on Technorati.

So, Hall’s in all sorts of trouble now, and my guess is that it’s calculated trouble on his part. It’s just after the primary election; we’re in a political news lull; and Hall is manufacturing some attention for himself and his blog by using these phone records that he’s obtained to stir up trouble on Democratic candidates (and by his own admission today on his blog, he lied to the Courier-Journal about how he obtained them; it was not through an open records request, but an anonymous source, or so we’re now told). If his main purpose in all this were to damage candidates with this material, after all, he wouldn’t be spinning it six months outside of an election. He’d wait until much closer.

My assumption is that now that Mark Nickolas is leaving Kentucky, Brett Hall is going to try and remind us that he and his blog are still around. But, I have some news for Mr. Hall. All this controversy won’t do you a bit of good as far as traffic is concerned unless you have the content to bring people back time and time again.

And, you know, he doesn’t.

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