Suddenly, people with money are starting to fund pro, or at least semipro, blog sites.

Case #1: The Huffington Post, started by that socialite ex-Republican herself Arianna Huffington. She’s enlisted a whole bevy of celebrities, pundits, and celebrity pundits to contribute short opinion/essay pieces, with no promise of payment for the foreseeable future. (She’s just got the persuasive schmoozin’ skills, apparently.) The site also has a “News Wire” section, gathering links to reportage on the sites of print and/or broadcast media organizations.

Case #2: Seattlest, a local multi-author site run by a company called “Gothamist.” As the name implies, the Seattle operation is but one link in a would-be nationwide chain of “city sites.” Fortunately, the Gothamist formula template isn’t like all those “city” board games that simply inserted local place names onto the same design. Instead, it allows for local contributors to treat local topics with personal perspectives. So far, I like it.

Elsewhere: Matthew Baldwin compares the current Republican political ideology to a comic-book fictional universe—specifically, to the DC Universe of the mid-’80s, full of contradictory “continuity” and “divergent storylines.”