From a reader:

Hey Jonah, I was surprised to find no mention of this on The Corner today, but Markos Moulistas revealed on his site that he has been hired as a contributor by Newsweek magazine. The pertinent text from Newsweek: Newsweek press release FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Tuesday, November 13, 2007 MARKOS MOULITSAS, FOUNDER AND PUBLISHER OF DAILYKOS.COM, TO BECOME NEWSWEEK CONTRIBUTOR FOR 2008 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN New York — Markos Moulitsas, the founder and publisher of dailykos.com, will become a Newsweek contributor for the 2008 presidential campaign, offering occasional opinion pieces to the pages of the magazine and to Newsweek.com. “We have always sought to represent a diversity of views in Newsweek, and we think Markos will be a great part of that tradition,” said Newsweek Editor Jon Meacham. “He will give our readers in print and online a unique perspective. As always, our job is to create the most energetic and illuminating magazine possible, and Markos will help us do that as the campaign unfolds.” To which Markos adds: Yeah, there’s a lot of heads exploding in wingnutlandia today over this bit of news. But Newsweek is “balancing” me out with someone that should make heads on our side explode. Announcement on that name is still a couple of days off.

The reader who sent this adds:

In addition to the expected complaints and grievances I have with Newsweek giving this guy a gig (oh, the sacrifices print media must make to battle declining subscriptions), my question is who can Newsweek possibly get as a “balance?” Who on the Right is as fantastically removed from the mainstream as Markos? Then, when asked, who wouldn’t say, “So you want be to be the Conservative parallel to Markos Moulistas? The guy whose biggest achievement is hosting an aggrandized chatroom for loons? Yes, that’s the level of talent and intellect I aspire to equal!”

Me: I guess I have a different take. First, I don’t care very much. Moulistsas isn’t a very interesting or insightful writer, is he? Nobody I know — liberal, conservative or libertarian — was remotely impressed with his Libertarian Democrat schtick. The only thing interesting about the guy stems from his role as a news maker not a news commentator. I have no more interest in his punditry than I do in Pat Robertson’s or Jesse Jackson’s. He’s the leading spokesman of the netroots crowd and as such he speaks with authority for a constituency. Therefore what he says is interesting if it reflects a political development or push from his troops. Otherwise who cares? I’m sure Newsweek knows this. If they wanted to run the opinions and arguments of smart leftwing bloggers they could have found plenty of other candidates for the gig. The fact that Newsweek wants to give its pages over to an activist is interesting as a media story, but who will read Kos’ columns as anything other than press statements for his faction or party? He’s famously said all he cares about is winning. Will anyone be surprised — never mind interested — when that comes out predictably in his writing?

One amusing aspect of this, however, is how we now have one more bit of evidence that the whole “Barbarians crashing the gates” marketing campaign is completely spent. Kos is as establishment as they come now. Nothing wrong with that — unless you deny it.