And Above The Fold, No Less

by tristero

Congratulations to Jane Hamsher and her merry team of bloggers at firedoglake both for the stellar work they’ve done on the Libby trial and also for making the front page of the New York Times. And the headline describes perfectly what blogging is about:

For Liberal Bloggers, Libby Trial Is Fun and Fodder

That’s right. Except for the dangerous scourge of rightwing extremists, who are an onerous duty to confront, political and cultural blogging can be a lot of fun. And you can learn an enormous amount. Well, at least I have. And blogging something important like the Libby trial, where even the most competent press reportage will omit details that many of us would find very important, does indeed provide fodder for a more focused political agenda.

One final thing about that headline. Jane, and by extension, our larger patch of the blogosphere has been – will wonders never cease? – accurately described. We are liberal bloggers, and the Times knows this, resisting the use of a more prejudicial and inaccurate adjective with the same number of letters that would please the rightwingers (can u guess what it is?). While the Times, disgracefully, still permits its reporters to take dictation from Bush and print it as reporting, this is a refreshing, and hopeful sign. It wasn’t too long ago that the Times, under Raines, would provide creationists free advertising on their front page. It’s not much of a step forward to describe Jane as a liberal blogger and not, inaccurately, as a _____, but it is a step.

In any event, congrats to everyone at firedoglake. And also, thanks, Marcy, thanks Jane, and thanks to all the rest of you for your great, great work.

[Update: Inaccurate description of Jane in penultimate paragraph removed so you can have the fun of guessing what it is. it’s not too hard…]