Christine O’Donnell Buys Ads on OTB

Christine O'Donnell is buying ads on posts arguing that the party screwed itself by voting for her in yesterday's Republican primary.

A welcome but unintended consequence of so many postings on Christine O’Donnell’s ouster of Republican stalwart Mike Castle is that we’re drawing advertising from the O’Donnell campaign to posts arguing that the party screwed itself.    This screenshot was taken from Steven Taylor’s “What the GOP Just Won in Delaware: a Likely Loss in November“:

As noted on our Disclosures statement, no endorsement is implied by our running these ads:

[W]hile we’re indirectly getting paid by the political candidates, companies, causes, or whathaveyou whose ads appear in these spots, we have no relationship with those people and, more importantly, our editorial choices are not influenced by the fact they’re placing ads on our site via a third party network.

This is particularly noteworthy in the case of Google’s Adsense network, which uses keywords and other contextual indicators to assign ads.  So, a post about a particular politician, product, or issue may quite well have an ad or ads from that politician or company or their rivals.   While not coincidental — indeed, it’s quite intentional on the part of the ad purchaser — it’s independent of our editorial choices.  And, indeed, any number of different ads will be served in these spots even on the same blog post page, over the course of time.

You’d have probably figured that out, anyway.

FILED UNDER: 2010 Election, Humor, , , , , ,
James Joyner
About James Joyner
James Joyner is Professor and Department Head of Security Studies at Marine Corps University's Command and Staff College. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm veteran. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.

Comments

  1. sam says:

    Can I help OTB?
     

    GOP Screwed Itself in Delaware

     

  2. James Joyner says:

    Amusingly, we’ve now triggered a Barney Frank ad.  Not sure what that’s all about.

  3. hln says:

    Ah, capitalism.  It’s beautiful.

  4. G.A.Phillips says:

    Good I am sick of looking at crusty Russ “the fake people in my commercials candidate” and Bruce the “dirty wife beater t wearing communist/millionaire” Suckinsteeeeen…..

    While I’m reading here!!!!

  5. Zelsdorf Ragshaft III says:

    James, in what way was or is Castle a Republican stalwart?  If one examines Mike Castle’s record of voting and his stated postions it is really difficult to tell this guy puts an R after his name.  Guess he is one of those RINOs.  Pro choice, anti gun, voted for cap and trade.  If this guy was a GOP stalwart, there is a change coming to the grand old party.  All the attention is on O’Donnell.  Wait until we start looking at the job Chris Coons has done.  Let us see what is there.  Is county is bankrupt and he supports those policies which are impoverishing our country.  I think the illuminaries of the GOP must think the people of Delaware are stupid enough to vote themselves into the poor house.  A vote for Coons is just exactly that.

  6. Contracts says:

    Apparently, your keywords have triggered a Zels response as well.