Posted on 12/20/2004 7:54:19 AM PST by Caleb1411
A fraudulent document and a fallen television icon propelled a trio of online writers to Internet stardom earlier this year when they used their Web site, Power Line, to help uncover the truth of a fake story shown on CBS' "60 Minutes."
The rise to celebrity status was validated Sunday when Time magazine named Twin Cities-based Power Line the "Blog of the Year," the first such award from the magazine.
"It's so gratifying," said Scott Johnson, a Minneapolis banker and one of three authors at the site (www.powerlineblog.com). "It's totally unexpected."
The story of how an online publication from the wild frontiers of the Internet undercut a national news network began two years ago.
Minneapolis lawyer John Hinderaker suggested to Johnson, his writing partner, that the pair use the Internet and the emerging medium of Web logs, or blogs, to publish pieces on the economy and politics.
While Hinderaker thought his suggestion was brilliant, Johnson was less enthusiastic: "He said, 'I think the idea that we could ever have any readers for this thing is a pathetic fantasy,' " Hinderaker said with a chuckle on Sunday. . . .
(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...
They are a great listen on saturday afternoon.
can you post the full article?...rto
bump for later
I'm offended that they get credit for what Free Republic and Buckhead did. On the other hand, I sometimes dread the day when FR becomes well known and then a target for attacks by ACLU etc. We know it's coming so the longer we can work under the radar the better I guess. (How's that for rationalizing?)
I dread the day Jesse Jackson finds out about this site and sue Jim because the background it 'whiter than a Twinkie filling'. :/
The MPLS (red) Star Tribune won't allow it. (Trust me you don't want to read this rag. The NY Times called it left wing loony a couple of years ago.
Twin Cities bloggers earn Time honor
By PATRICK CONDON Associated Press Writer
The Associated Press - Sunday, December 19, 2004
http://www.in-forum.com/ap/index.cfm?page=view&id=D872RGR01
MINNEAPOLIS
President George W. Bush may be Time's Person of the Year, but two Twin Cities lawyers are behind the magazine's first-ever Blog of the Year.
John Hinderaker and Scott Johnson founded their blog, Power Line, in 2002 and earned notoriety this year for fomenting skepticism of a "60 Minutes" report on Bush's service in the National Guard.
"In 2004, blogs unexpectedly vaulted into the pantheon of major media, alongside TV, radio and, yes, magazines, and it was Power Line, more than any other blog, that got them there," said the Time story, on newsstands Monday.
The word blog is short for Weblog. Hinderaker and Johnson, along with Washington, D.C.-based lawyer Paul Mirengoff, update their site, http://www.powerlineblog.com, numerous times a day with right-leaning commentary and links to news stories and other blogs.
"It's a very emotional experience," Johnson said Sunday in an interview with The Associated Press. "We've been having such a good time writing together on the site ... to not only to see it come to fruition but to be recognized for it by an institution like Time is just beyond belief."
Hinderaker, 54, of Apple Valley, and Johnson, 53, of St. Paul, met in the early 1980s when they both practiced law at the Minneapolis firm Faegre and Benson. Hinderaker remains at the firm, while Johnson is now senior vice president at TCF National Bank.
The two men wrote articles over the years for newspapers and magazines like National Review. Hindraker set up the Web site in 2002, he said, because both men found between family and work commitments they had less and less time to research and write full-length articles.
"I thought it would be an ideal medium for us," Hindraker told The Associated Press. "If you have some thoughts, you can bang them out, you have the immediacy of posting them."
Hindraker said the site first gained some national attention during Minnesota's 2002 Senate race. But it was the "60 Minutes" story that brought untold numbers of new readers.
The morning after the show aired, Johnson looked at memos posted on the CBS Web site that related to President Bush's National Guard service. He immediately questioned the validity of the documents in a blog posting, and posted a link to another site asking similar questions. The story spiraled from there, catching hold across the so-called "Blogosphere," and before long the mainstream media covered it as well.
CBS has since launched a formal investigation into the documents now widely believed to be forgeries. Anchorman Dan Rather, who worked on the "60 Minutes" piece, was heavily criticized for his role and has since announced his retirement, though he has not acknowledged a link to the document story.
"What the incident shows is the power of the medium to pull together all these tiny bits of knowledge that everyone's got, into a cohesive whole," Hindraker said.
Hindraker and Johnson said they both spend a few hours a day posting on the site, often early in the morning or late at night. They recently started accepting paid ads, though Hindraker said they only make "a couple thousand bucks a month."
Both men said they plan to plow ahead even as recognition from places like Time magazine push blogging closer to the mainstream media it exists largely to debunk.
"I think we're just at the beginning of the revolution," Johnson said.
___
On the Net:
http://www.powerlineblog.com
I'm offended that they get credit for what Free Republic and Buckhead did.
the lads at Powerline have made it clear over and over that they got the story here.
Remember what Ronald Reagan said
"There's no telling how much you can get done if you don't care who gets the credit."
Gee what a surprise, the media nominates an non-interative blog instead of an interactive forum, free republic, which broke the story first.
See reply #5
OOP! make that #8.
All too true in the good sense.
I still think the MSM is afraid of pointing out forums like FR because once any person finds out they can INTERACT with developing news as it happens in real time, the MSM becomes unwatchable yesterday's news. The last thing the MSM wants is more conservatives knowing other conservatives will listen to their opinion and respond.
My blog, a lesser star in the firmament ...
http://freedomstruth.blogspot.com
Powerline's success this year extended beyond the documents. They (along with Instapundit) were instrumental in getting the SBVT Cambodia story fanned into the mainstream.
Hard to believe that Time got it right. But yeah, it would be powerlineblog, or Johnson's LGF. But people paid more attention in the first couple of days to powerlineblog. And of course, while FR is not a weblog, it really started here with Buckhead, who was SO FAR ahead of the curve in providing suggestions to questions people didn't even know they should be asking at first that it brought out the conspiratists to see if he wasn't even somehow behind a Burkett setup, once people knew about Burkett and his local Kinko's, a week or so later.
I seem to remember a couple of incidents, however, that got people to FR, and powerlineblog, and others which set the stage for Rathergate. There was the blackout by the LM on Swiftie coverage from the formal day of their announcement until the story reached a wide audience despite their censorship of the story. And Drudge had broken the story of the press conference. I think only WND and Newsmax actually covered it. Then of course there was Abu Graib, and the secret Taguba report, and soon the images and the trail that finally tarnished not just Hersh, but Hackworth and some others, too. Then there was Hazel O'Leary having a cow on the airplane, and appearing to lie in her affadivit about the incident. Then, of course, there was Sandy 'Pants'. I'm sure FR, and the 'blogs', were getting a LOT of hits at that point, on that story. The web was overheating. And then this memo.
When CBS released the documents to the web, they didn't realize in what a hyper-state everything was, at that point. I suppose, in future, these outfits will refuse now to release supporting documents for their stories, citing 'yellow-journalist' privilege.
lesser star in the firmament
Lesser star? Oh I don't know about that. I can't speak for others but I go there darn near everyday.
The thing of it is we have all these little points out there on the net and they feed off each other get ideas...etc, until we end up with something big.....and only getting bigger.
Information! It's a good thing.
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