The week content aggregators rushed to the defense of two millionaires

Thank you, Byron Crawford, for the title of this post.

Rizoh at the Houston Press offers his economic hypothesis as to why D. Dot received a World Wide Slap.

So why was he singled out for persecution? Perhaps people were turned off by his arrogance – as he bragged on his blog, he wasn’t even invited to the party, and only cleared security because of his “connect.” So, there’s that. Maybe some of those who threw stones were trying to curry favor with The Throne in the hopes of being rewarded with crumbs from the royal dinner table. Whatever the case, the blogosphere ethered one of its own.

Essentially, the evisceration of DDot Omen was an act of self-preservation. It’s bad enough that bloggers have been under the RIAA’s microscope lately. Last Thanksgiving, several prominent hip-hop sites were embargoed by the FBI for sharing illegal MP3s.

Recently a long list of blacklisted sites was leaked. It included damn near every hip-hop blog in history. It makes perfect sense that the bloggerati would condemn Omen’s antics because they’re tired of being persecuted by the alphabet boys. The last thing they want is to give the industry another reason to reboot that witch hunt.

What does all this mean for music bloggers going forward? For starters, blogging is still very much a game of “first!” but there’s a bigger emphasis on respecting the game. These days, when major labels urge sites to hold off on posting leaks, they willingly comply and wait for the green light.

Spit on the game and risk getting your legs chopped off. That wasn’t always the case. With blogs being viewed as legitimate media outlets now more than ever, the shift towards traditional journalistic standards is only natural.

Still, questions remain. The definition of what’s acceptable will depend on who you ask. The arbiter of what constitutes ethical practice is even less clear. But none of that matters at the end of the day.

When you cross that blurry line between right and wrong, or subject people to horribly muffled MP3s in a bid to rack up pageviews, the bloggerati will let you have it.