Does anybody know how much it costs to start a videoblog? Because I keep pondering that Valleywag story about Rielle Hunter’s best friend Fred Baron loaning his son Andrew $800,000 to start Rocketboom (and then suing to get it back). Where did all that money go? Let’s tally up Rocketboom’s expenses:

• 1 pretty girl (preferably with large talents)
• 1 video camera
• 1 microphone
• 1 small set (consisting of 1 desk, 1 chair, 1 world map, and 1 laptop)
• 1 piece of paper for the girl to hold in front of her like a real live newscaster
• 1 web server

What else? I guess they have to pay for the graphics and that type of stuff, and travel expenses for field pieces. According to Andrew, they have one writer, and according to Wikipedia, the entire staff consists of six people. Even Andrew himself has said: “The beauty of this all of course is that it can be done for so cheap.” And when you watch their videos, sorry, but they do not look like four-fifths of a million bucks.

So… where did all that money go?

Update: “What about bandwidth?” Andrew again:

“Aside from the minimal consumer equipment (laptop and camera) the only substantial cost besides salary (or lack thereof) is bandwidth. Yet bandwidth is so cheap and getting cheaper.”

And that was in 2005.

Coincidentally enough, Andrew filmed this 12/27/06 video for the John Edwards campaign, according to NewTeeVee:

Also via NewTeeVee, here’s Andrew’s description of that video (in a post that’s now missing from his Dembot blog):

Today Joanne, Chuck and I are out in New Orleans for a Rocketboom exclusive. We just filmed John Edwards’ first announcement that he is running for president. It’s actually an announcement of an announcement, so to speak. I then uploaded the video to YouTube and there ya have it folks, the rest is history.

It certainly is. And when it comes to this story, history has a tendency to disappear from the Web. Will this video be next?

Getting back to Andrew’s dad Fred, ABC News is getting all up in his face at the DNC. (Unfortunately I can’t link to ABC because they’re a bunch of lowdown research-rustlers, but do a Google News search if you’re so inclined.) They spotted him at “a private luncheon for top party donors and key senators,” and here’s the nut graf:

Baron, a longtime major contributor to Democratic candidates, would not answer questions from ABC News and walked away when he saw cameras.

Why would you go the DNC, which has the highest concentration of reporters per square inch in America this week, and then dodge those reporters? (The Dallas Morning News has more on this selfless humanitarian.)

In other J&R news:

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