PJ Media's Roger L. Simon helped Perry

Simon, founder and CEO of the Los Angeles-based conservative political site PJ Media, told Politico that he did unpaid work for Texas Gov. Rick Perry's presidential campaign, but became uncomfortable straddling both a campaign and his media role, albeit a partisan one. "I just stopped doing it because I felt weird about the whole thing," Simon said, according to Ben Smith.

Simon's early blog items on Perry were laudatory and didn't mention any possible offline relationship with the Texan's campaign organization.

"If I seem overly enthusiastic, it’s because I have spent a fair amount of time with Perry — pistol shooting and at the NASCAR races," he wrote in June. "Perry is a people person’s people person. The guy is as much of a political natural as I have seen. He is also a great friend of new media. At a time when our country is in danger of imploding and going into a serious decline, a potential disaster for the entire globe, it would be a relief if he ran."

Simon has since given up on the candidate.

"Santorum, Bachmann, Huntsman, and, alas, Perry should all go home. They have less chance of being president than your Aunt Minnie," he wrote last week.

And on the left: Tina Dupuy, managing editor of the L.A.-based liberal site Crooks and Liars, has become something of an unofficial promoter of all things Occupy and writes at The Atlantic about the Oakland and Berkeley events, declaring the gatherings somehow "historic."