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Blog of the Year
Powerline ^ | December 19, 2004 | John H. Hinderaker

Posted on 12/21/2004 3:31:44 PM PST by swilhelm73

As noted below, Time Magazine has named us "Blog of the Year" in the issue which hits the newsstands tomorrow. (The Man of the Year, of course, is President Bush.) The article about us, by Lev Grossman, is very good. The photo that accompanies it, I'm not so sure about:

Grossman's article describes how we started the site, tells a bit about us personally, and relates the story of The Sixty-First Minute, the post on the forged CBS memos that the Trunk began on the morning of September 9. In the article, I describe the Sixty-First Minute as the most famous post in the (short) history of the blogosphere.

Grossman is a novelist, and his article is beautifully written. I don't think we're supposed to quote from it at length until the magazine officially comes out tomorrow, but I hope they won't mind if we note this excerpt:

The story of how three amateur journalists working in a homegrown online medium challenged a network news legend and won has many, many game-changing angles to it. One of the strangest and most radical is that the key information in "The 61st Minute" came from Power Line's readers, not its ostensible writers. The Power Liners are quick, even eager, to point this out. "What this story shows more than anything is the power of the medium," Hinderaker says. "The world is full of smart people who have information about every imaginable topic, and until the Internet came along, there wasn't any practical way to put it together." Now there is.

Thanks to Time, to Lev Grossman, and above all, to our readers, who more than anyone else make this site and the blogosphere possible.

BIG TRUNK adds: Sincere thanks to our readers, who were our sources for so much of the Rather story, and whose support and encouragement have kept us going; to fellow bloggers Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs and Bill Ardolino of INDC, who made special contributions nailing the Rather story on September 9; to Hugh Hewitt, our first media supporter, dating back to the fall of 2002; and to my colleague Gene Allen, who originally brought us to Hugh's attention. Each time I see Hugh, I remind him that we are a figment of his capacious imagination.

UPDATE by Hindrocket: AP reporter Patrick Condon has also written an article about us, based on interviews we did this morning.


TOPICS: Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 2004review; manoftheyear; powerline; timemag; weblogs
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1 posted on 12/21/2004 3:31:44 PM PST by swilhelm73
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To: swilhelm73

Yeah, and FR and Buckhead scooped them all.


2 posted on 12/21/2004 3:33:52 PM PST by dirtboy (To make a pearl, you must first irritate an oyster)
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To: swilhelm73

Don't we deserve some credit?


3 posted on 12/21/2004 3:35:05 PM PST by KJacob (Faith is not believing God can. It is knowing God will.)
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To: swilhelm73
Powerline is a good blog. Congratulations you guys.
4 posted on 12/21/2004 3:36:34 PM PST by colorado tanker (The People Have Spoken)
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Comment #5 Removed by Moderator

To: dirtboy
Yeah, and FR and Buckhead scooped them all.

I personally would extend the credit for that to LGF, which was the first site to prove that the Rathergate documents were fakes.

6 posted on 12/21/2004 3:38:02 PM PST by supercat (To call the Constitution a 'living document' is to call a moth-infested overcoat a 'living garment'.)
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To: colorado tanker
Powerline is a good blog. Congratulations you guys.

Yup. Glad to have their guns pointed in the same direction as ours.

7 posted on 12/21/2004 3:38:16 PM PST by randog (What the....?!)
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To: swilhelm73

We haven't seen the Time article yet. Possibly they will credit FR, Little Green Footballs, and other sites that developed the story.

Or possibly they won't. They may not want to give FR any publicity.


8 posted on 12/21/2004 3:38:28 PM PST by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: Cicero

I'd like to see FR and LGF get some mention too...but our names are out there.

As far as I'm concerned...as long as Wonkette didn't get it- I'm happy:)


9 posted on 12/21/2004 3:43:58 PM PST by SE Mom (God Bless our troops.)
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To: randog

Here Here!

Guns pointed in the same direction indeed!

This was a "team" win (so long as a loose confederation of more or less like minded rugged individualists can really be called a "team!").

Cartman says "kick a$$!" only he doesn't have to use dollar signs.

Top sends


10 posted on 12/21/2004 3:52:24 PM PST by petro45acp ("Democrat = socialist. Remember it, repeat it, say it loudly, and VOTE!")
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To: swilhelm73

Still not buying this Time issue - or any other.

They are just looking for customers.


11 posted on 12/21/2004 3:53:09 PM PST by highflight (from a distance - buzzards might appear as eagles.)
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To: swilhelm73

You know we're never going to get credit. We're as despised on the internet level as President Bush is on the policy level.


12 posted on 12/21/2004 3:56:01 PM PST by writer33 (The U.S. Constitution defines a conservative.)
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To: Cicero

"You know we're never going to get credit. We're as despised on the internet level as President Bush is on the policy level."

Your right. No credit.


13 posted on 12/21/2004 3:57:00 PM PST by writer33 (The U.S. Constitution defines a conservative.)
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To: swilhelm73
In the Blogosphere FreeRepublic is the Eagle, all others are merely Parakettes or some other kind of Parrot or noisy bird.. No Blog is fully Bloginated until properly and extensively vetted..

FreeRepublic is much more about the Vett'ors than the Vett'ed. If a Blog can even make it though, reasonably unharmed, a FreeRepublic thread, its worthy THEN of discussion by Grown-ups.. -OR- proudly displayed WITH all the commentary.. The commentary is most times more revealing than the Blog itself.. So, a good Blog that has not been FreeRepublican'ized, is merely a Question with no answer, or worse a statement with a myopic opinion..

14 posted on 12/21/2004 4:08:13 PM PST by hosepipe (This propaganda has been ok'ed me to included some fully orbed hyperbole....)
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To: swilhelm73
When did we become a blog?
I hate that word.
15 posted on 12/21/2004 4:15:40 PM PST by Publius6961 (The most abundant things in the universe are hydrogen and stupidity.)
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To: writer33
That's my take too writer. There are few websites out there that cover as much and as in-depth as we do here. But we have to be the MSM's worst nightmare, no wonder they ignore us.
16 posted on 12/21/2004 4:23:54 PM PST by rodguy911 (rodguy911:First let's get rid of the UN and then the ACLU, or vice versa..)
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To: rodguy911; Publius6961

I've said it before and I'll say it again, "Free Republic has some of the finest minds I'll ever know."

And we're not a blog. We post news and comment on leftist idiocy. I guess the word, blog, is a term the MSM uses to try and demote us somehow. Besides, they consider internet material less than worthy. Hence, blogs.


17 posted on 12/21/2004 4:27:43 PM PST by writer33 (The U.S. Constitution defines a conservative.)
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To: writer33

Actually, FreeRepublic is the quickest way to get all the important news regardless of your political point of view. We make a special point of consulting all the important sources, liberal and conservative, foreign and domestic, mainstream and internet.

Obviously our take on the news is conservative, but the forum is extremely useful for accessing most of the news. It's much better than Drudge, for instance. Drudge has numerous useful links, but he is much quirkier in what he headlines.

For instance, I had an argument with my son about the deer hunter killings. I don't know of any better source for learning everything that's known about this case than FR, and, for instance, one of Backhoe's lists of links. That's true of most significant topics.


18 posted on 12/21/2004 4:42:22 PM PST by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: Cicero
I agree that they are wary of mentioning free republic as there are turf wars between print media and internet sites.

There's a new and anti-Bush web site and this is a good place to put the URL. I've been encouraged to share this link. They are going to go after Bush for the next four years. Guess it's pretty ugly in here.

More press, including Saturday Night Live! After the AP story about Turn Your Back on Bush was picked up by over 50 newspapers across the country on Wednesday, the Washington Post mentioned us in an article about Inauguration security on Saturday. And if you were watching Saturday Night Live last weekend you probably noticed that Weekend Update included a segment on Turn Your Back on Bush. We're working on getting a screenshot and transcript of the SNL piece, and you can find the articles on our new media page at

www.turnyourbackonbush.org/media.html

THE ABOVE INFO WAS FROM http://www.gopinsight.com.

19 posted on 12/21/2004 4:48:43 PM PST by floriduh voter (www,conservative-spirit.org (Mine))
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To: colorado tanker

Without a mutual kudos to FR one may fairly infer that their collective balooonischmentalments hast becomest overpressurized.


20 posted on 12/21/2004 4:53:03 PM PST by bvw
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