The mystery behind the media bloggers association that defended Rogers Cadenhead of The Drudge Retort to AP is clearing. But if anything it shows AP in an even worse light than before. Wanting to be sure I had not overlooked something when writing yesterday about them, I visited the Media Bloggers Association site. Three things were quickly apparent, and explain why I'm not posting a link to the site.

1. The site offers legal advice to bloggers that join, but the proprietor says he is not a lawyer, and in various posts he ridicules those who say he claims to represent bloggers as a whole. Mmmm, very strange.

2. Roger Cox, the proprietor, does not come across like a blogger. In responding to Gawker's piece about him he expressed a level of rudeness and arrogance you rarely see in the blogosphere. But, on the other hand, Gawker's piece, "Is the Media Bloggers Association a Scam?" had done a pretty good exposé on him! He also does not do the usual thing of citing and linking in a friendly way to other blogs, but seems to only talk about himself. And though he mentions how other blogs talk about him, he does not often link to the stories. I was pretty amazed why this would make any blogger want him as their representative.

3. His sympathies appear to be all with the traditional news media. He says nicer things about AP than about other blogs.

In fact, Making Light has taken a pretty close look at Cox's background and turned up some rather unpleasant facts, including Cox doctoring his wikipedia entry by claiming credit for someone else's story, being behind right-wing sites attacking every liberal blog in election campaigns, spamming blogs that give him negative coverage, and, worst of all, having existing business links to AP...

In a way, I ended up almost respecting Cox's chutzpah, except that I think it looks more like bullying - or joining the bullies in this case. The many news outlets taking the AP / Media Bloggers Association negotiation at face value are starting to look out of their depth as this story refuses to die. AP certainly seems to be trying to kill it, and leaving the Drudge Retort well alone, but I have the feeling there is more to come...