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.
I don't have to have credit; I just have to have results.
Results speak for themselves.
As long as you are FREE to say what you want to and I am FREE to respond we have a manifestation of the first amendment. Once Joel Klein or Dan Rather has a monopoly on who hears what we have a false republic. Go internet. Go Jim Robinson. (donate to Free Republic.)
I do believe having savvy and education on facts and world affairs does help flummox the biggest of liberal schmoozer!
When they say America are in Iraq for oil?
I say, anyone for Kofi?
You pit their anti-Americanism against their reality and they shit themselves.
Then I say..and you wanted us to trust the UN to get rid of a despot, and his two despot heirs? Please.
Ba-da-bing! That was the money shot!
I was a lurker for over a year, I had an earlier FReeper name which I have now lost and forgotten. I finally decided that my own name was one I wouldn't forget, and re-registered in 2000. ;-D
I know from my own experience here that everything you say is true.
Exactly. He got his "big scoop" right off this forum.
LOL! You are SO right!
Well, you would be wrong to do that. Obviously you haven't read the threads from that night.
Lots of the new people who signed up after the CBS thing call us a blog. It's a fulltime job correcting them.
:) Just kidding!
I beg to differ. You put it in the right words as well as anybody I've seen on here could have.
Just think of the things we've learned and/or witnessed right here on this very site.
It started as a bulletin board on Compuserve, I think; I'm not exactly sure about that, but that's my impression. (If it's not right, you know somebody will be right along to tell me shortly. :-)
how did it get to be so popular?
"Popular" is not a word I would use for FR.....LOL. Most of us early posters found our way here during the Clinton administration from a link on the Drudge Report (which he immediately took down).
I mean, I know why it's so widely read now (I'm an addict myself) but how was it "publicized"?
Word of mouth. For quite a long time -- and even to this day -- a lot of that "word of mouth" is just tantalizing enough to draw conservatives here; of course, Rush mentioned us early on, as does Hannity and Mark Levin.
Those who stumble upon us, however they get here, are either stunned and/or zotted or -- for the ones that "get it" right off and realize they have found a home -- usually can't believe it.......LOL.
"I don't have to have credit; I just have to have results.
Results speak for themselves."
I completely agree.
Here's an archive with some of the "earlier" threads......see how different it looks!
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.freerepublic.com
"Then I say..and you wanted us to trust the UN to get rid of a despot, and his two despot heirs? Please."
Now, Happygal. You're not being very open minded. How do you live with yourself? :)
How do I live with myself?
Well, I'm still breathing..
Voila! *L*
"Well, I'm still breathing.."
:)
FR raised suspicions, but I believe it was LGF that first provided the absolute smoking gun (that not only did the document 'look' modern, but it in fact matched up with the default settings on MS Word). It is in retrospect surprising that nobody here (myself included) thought to try typing the document into MS Word before LGF posted their results, but the distortions in the letter shapes caused people to mis-identify the font.
Perhaps you should read this thread:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1220090/posts
This was a "done" deal before LGF posted it on their web site.
So true.. over the years I've been saved from much hand wringing because of this site.. Conspiracys abound, even real ones..but not all are real.. FR vetting's can save you from Cul D'Sacs of thought.. like chaseing your tail.. And as your tag suggests learning to search this site is a valuable asset.. Uncle Bob and Backhoe and others carry a wealth of value in their posts.. Free Republic is really Jim "Robinson Caroes" Island.. and I feel like Bob Denver(Gillian).. The adventures abound to the persistent.. The weak of heart are eaten by trolls or the Viking Kittys...
Aye, mate.. look alive... feel the freshness in the breeze..
A flaggon grog for the whole crew..
Arrrgh... {/wink}..
I've enjoyed your posts on this thread; very insightful. You're putting into words what a lot of us feel.
My husband tries to warn his parents not to try to argue with me because I always have the facts from FR to back me up!
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