LAT: Blogs can top the presses

[Rose Siding]

This is some of the first accurate and positive coverage of a blogger that I've ever seen in the traditional press. Of course, this Times staff writer didn't choose to elevate a fringey RW extremist the way Kurtz did in his profile of Fox News contributor Michelle Malkin. It's an ode to Josh Marshall!

In December, Josh Marshall, who owns and runs TPM , posted a short item linking to a news report in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette about the firing of the U.S. attorney for that state. Marshall later followed up, adding that several U.S. attorneys were apparently being replaced and asked his 100,000 or so daily readers to write in if they knew anything about U.S. attorneys being fired in their areas.

For the two months that followed, Talking Points Memo and one of its sister sites, TPM Muckraker, accumulated evidence from around the country on who the axed prosecutors were, and why politics might be behind the firings. The cause was taken up among Democrats in Congress. One senior Justice Department official has resigned, and Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales is now in the media crosshairs.

This isn't the first time Marshall and Talking Points have led coverage on national issues. In 2002, the site was the first to devote more than just passing mention to then-Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott's claim that the country would have been better off had the segregationist 1948 presidential campaign of Sen. Strom Thurmond succeeded. The subsequent furor cost Lott his leadership position.

Similarly, the TPM sites were leaders in chronicling the various scandals associated with Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

...(I)n 2004-05 when Marshall turned the site's focus to President Bush's proposed privatization of Social Security. Marshall asked readers to survey their own members of Congress on the issue. This distributed reporting helped TPM compile rosters of where every member of Congress stood on the proposal, something no newspaper attempted. By making apparent the lack of enthusiasm for the plan, TPM helped kill it.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-blogs17mar17,0,2952916.story?coll=la-home-headlines

Pretty important work, huh? -The sort of contribution that should be chronicled this way by the traditional media. :applause: (for Josh AND the LAT)

[Cooley Hurd]

1. K&R for Josh - here's a great pic of Josh and Paul from the article:

[PDittie]

2. Josh Marshall is one of the best there is

... and yes, if the so-called liberal media were doing their f*cking jobs, the blogs would not be what they are today.

[Chimichurri]

3. Outstanding! This is a well deserved homage to Josh - he's created

one hell of a site. Congrats to him for keeping the fire alive!

[AussieDave]

4. TPM does important work and is getting the recognition it deserves,

grudging as it may come. Here's an abject apologia from Jay Carney at the Time magazine blog Swampland for pooh-pooing Josh Marshall's pursuit of the US Attorney story (link here http://time-blog.com/swampland/2007/01/running_massacre.html)

http://time-blog.com/swampland/2007/03/where_credit_is_due.html

After both posts, of course, readers let Carney have it with both barrels - he was told after the January post how wrong he was.

Karma is an absolute bitch.

[papau]

5. always two sets of competing "facts" that are equally valid - never a GOP scandal - is not TPM's

style- but the non online media seems to have bought that right wing meme.

Indeed I doubt that Josh feels a need to get competing "factless facts" and spin from the think tanks, or even to report comments by GOP hacks like Tony Snow or his administration toadies in the GOP when there are no verifiable facts in their statements.

Josh will never move "up" to being a major media reporter/stenographer the way he is going.

Thank Goodness! :-)

[Olney Blue]

6. Congratulations, Josh!

[Morgana LaFey]

7. K&R