Something’s rank at Red County/OC Blog

We have been highlighting the blog ranking system produced by our friends at Blognetnews.com over the last few weeks. Last week we actually came in #1 in political influence in the State of California, which was a very gratifying experience for all of us here at the Orange Juice! blog.

The previous week the Red County/OC Blog had come in first place. But even when we moved ahead of them they kept touting that they were #1. I let that slip without question as I knew that their editor, Jubal/Matt Cunningham, had to be quite sore that we had come out ahead of him.

But this week, after the O.C. Register’s Orange Punch came in #1, Cunningham dropped all links to Blognetnews.com and then he posted this attack on their ranking system:

“Although Red County/OC Blog has been doing well in this ranking, it’s pretty clear it’s a marketing device — albeit an ingenious one — by BlogNetNews.

They send e-mails to all of us inviting us to check out their blog rankings. We get excited about it and post links from our blog to BNN — not mention pasting their ready-made graphics so BNN gets free blog ad placement.

Otherwise, how often do any of the Orange County blogs — or California blogs — post links to BNN?

Besides, any list of “California’s Most Influential Political Blogs” that omits Dan Weintruab’s “California Insider,” the SF Chronicles “Politics” blog and the LA Times “Political Muscle” blog (which is on temporary hiatus) — has to be suspect.

The list is neat to see. I was initially excited about it when it debuted. And I think it is an indication of how OC has the most vibrant local blogosphere in the state, but it’s still, at heart, a marketing gimmick that we should take too seriously..”

But Blognetnews.com’s editor, Dave Mastio, did not take that attack lying down. He responded right away:

“Yesterday, Jubal said:

“Besides, any list of “California’s Most Influential Political Blogs” that omits Dan Weintruab’s “California Insider,” the SF Chronicles “Politics” blog and the LA Times “Political Muscle” blog (which is on temporary hiatus) — has to be suspect.”

Once again, this is factually inaccurate: BNN does include California Insider and it has been in the top 20. BNN also includes the Chronicle’s politics blog, though it hasn’t made the top 20 yet. And since, the LA Times Political Muscle hasn’t posted in the last three weeks, it couldn’t have possibly made it into our lists. When they start posting again, we will carry them.

I don’t know why Jubal is attacking BNN’s credibility, but I wish he’d stick to the facts.

Maybe I am crazy here, but if Jubal would like to understand our system better so he can assess its credibility, he might start by asking questions. My email is editor@blognetnews.com

If anyone else has questions or blogs they think we omit, please don’t hesitate to drop me a line.”

Cunningham has also altered the link to our blog, over at Red County/OC Blog, so that it sends his readers to O.C. Supervisor Janet Nguyen’s campaign website instead of our blog. I thought that was funny at first…but he still has not changed the link back. It has become yet another sophomoric attack by the increasingly infantile Cunningham.

I find it ironic that Cunningham is accusing me of being a Nguyen sycophant, when he had nothing but glowing things to say about her opponents, Carlos Bustamante and Trung Nguyen, during last year’s Supervisorial campaign.

I for one am proud that our blog is listed by Blognetnews.com. I have also added a few other such features to our blog in recent weeks. You now see a blog widget touting the Technorati blog ratings service on our site. We also added a widget for the Alexa blog ranking system, and we signed up for Google Analytics.

We want to know how we are doing – and we want to share all of that information with our readers. You won’t find ANY such ratings on Red County/OC Blog’s site. Their information is a secret – much like Cunningham’s secret identity “Jubal” used to be until OC Weekly outed him.

About Admin

"Admin" is just editors Vern Nelson, Greg Diamond, or Ryan Cantor sharing something that they mostly didn't write themselves, but think you should see. Before December 2010, "Admin" may have been former blog owner Art Pedroza.