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The campaign’s MySpace presence began with an unoffical page by a Los Angeles paralegal who launched it after Obama was elected to the Senate, a page that got tens of thousands of “friends.” The Obama presidential campaign got involved, and the page became essentially a volunteer effort getting guidance from the campaign (steering it around FEC regulations, sharing content). In March MySpace promoted the page, and it got up to 160,000 friends, according to techPresident.
So who’s in the right? Damned if I know. Anthony cites the fee as recompense for all the time he’s spent on the page since January 1. That’s 123 days ago. Assuming an average of six hours a day at $50 an hour, I get $36,900. If I’m at least in the ballpark about his hours, $39,000 isn’t totally insane, particularly as a kick-off to negotiations. It’s also in the realm as fees paid to consultants for skills that are much harder to quantify, such as the $15,000 a month that went to feminist writer Naomi Wolf for her work on framing Al Gore’s campaign. She’s a famous person, but . . . so what? That’s old-media thinking.
