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Has Althouse, like Andrew Sullivan, ever relied on ghostbloggers?

I'm a month away from my 6-year anniversary writing this blog, posting every single day ? averaging at least 7 posts a day ? and never once handing this blog over to a guestblogger. But what about a ghostblogger? Do I ever give an assistant my password and let him post under my name, letting my readers think they are reading me when they are not? Because that's what Andrew Sullivan has been doing. On December 12th, over on Sullivan's blog, Patrick Appel put up a post titled "Minding The Store":

As always, it a pleasure to step in while Andrew gets some much needed rest. Guest-blogging is not all that different than my day-to-day activities on the Dish ? 24 of the 50 posts currently on the front page were written by me.

So why does Andrew need the rest? Is he ghost-resting for Patrick? Sullivan trusts this guy to write for him and he turns around and takes credit while Andrew is trying to rest?

All the substantive posts are Andrew's work, but it's my and Chris's job to read through the blogosphere and pick out the choicest bits. Andrew edits, approves, and spins what we find, but the illusion of an all-reading blogger is maintained by employing two extra sets of eyes.

But you just said "written by me"! Do you read lots of things and pass selections on to Andrew or do you write the posts? Presumably, the phrase "Andrew's work" means Andrew has looked at what Patrick and Chris write ? not just what they "find" ? and had the chance to add or change whatever words he likes. That is, if he feels like it, he can polish the Appel.

Do I do that sort of thing? Commenter EDH asked:

We know Meade does some of the photography, but does Althouse have him slavishly ghostwriting posts anonymously, like over at The Dish?

Just as I quote the writings of others, I sometimes use someone else's photography. I think it's always obvious when I'm doing that. I've started using a tag "photos by Meade" ? Meade is my husband ? but there are some Meade photos that predate that tag. You can normally tell that it's not one of my photos by the fact that it's a picture of me and it's not one of those arm's-length pictures. I quote Meade sometimes too, when he lets me, and sometimes he sends me a link to something he thinks I might be interested in. He sends me the links in iChat, but other than that, he's like readers who are nice enough to send me links in the email or the comments.

But no one has ever written a post for me. Not as a guest-blogger and not as a ghost-blogger. I have never even given a password for this blog to another person. No one has so much as corrected a typo for me. Every sentence that isn't marked as a quote was written by me. And I mean all 18,000+ posts.

You know, I have had my run-ins with Sullivan. He mocked my engagement announcement. He's given me Sarah-Palin-related assignments. I have paid a lot of attention to these things on my blog. (Here and here, for example.) I seriously believed I was interacting with Sullivan, a writer I have respected for maybe 20 years. I wouldn't have bothered with Patrick (or Chris). I really don't care what they think. If they insult me, they are to me like any number of bloggers who insult me and whose bait I don't take. I would always take Sullivan's bait, because Sullivan is important. Not to know whether it's Sullivan or one of them makes a mush out of the whole blog. I'm not wading through all of this ghost-generated verbiage and guessing about what might be the real thing.

It was impressive if one man could write all that stuff. The number of posts over there has been crazy. I think I write a lot, but Andrew... Andrew was the gold standard for solo bloggers.

And now... Trig is not his baby!

Full post as published by Althouse on December 17, 2009 (boomark / email).