TPM Wins Journalism Prize
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James Joyner | Tuesday, February 19, 2008 |
Whilst perusing Talking Points Memo earlier, I noted that Josh Marshall and company had won the George Polk award. Having never heard of said prize and casually presuming that it was in some sort of blog-specific category, I didn’t bother to click through.
Will Bunch’s post, “A landmark day for bloggers — and the future of journalism,” highlighted at memeorandum puts it into context.
The George Polk Awards are kind of like the Golden Globes of American journalism . Not as well known as those Oscars of the news business, the Pulitzer Prize, the Polk Awards are nevertheless probably a close second in terms of prestige.
Marshall (with staff reporter-bloggers Paul Kiel and Justin Rood) won the prize for their work in drawing attention to and connecting the dots in the U.S. Attorney firing scandal.
Gawker’s headline, “Blogger Wins Journalism Award, Printing Presses Spontaneously Combust,” is amusing and has more than a grain of truth. It’s supposed to be the New York Times and the Washington Post getting these awards, not stinkin’ bloggers.
TPM isn’t an ordinary blog, of course, in that Marshall has assembled a full-time staff dedicated to investigating and breaking news. Still, it shows the potential of citizen-journalism.
About the Author: James Joyner is the publisher of Outside the Beltway and the managing editor of the Atlantic Council. He's a former Army officer, Desert Storm vet, and college professor with a PhD in political science from The University of Alabama. He lives just outside the Beltway in Alexandria, Virginia.
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What does it say if the U.S. Attorney firings got an award, and LGF didn't get one for bringing "The Eye"/Dan Rather down?
What does it say if the U.S. Attorney firings got an award, and LGF didn't get one for bringing "The Eye"/Dan Rather down?
A fair point, although credit was much more diffuse in the latter case. Powerline was actually considered the major contributor in that one and, more to the point, Fox and others gave it mainstream media attention THAT DAY and took over the process.
Contrariwise, Marshall and company took separate reporting from many local reporters and built a story out of it, keeping it alive for weeks and making something major out of it before the MSM took note.
Marshall has assembled a full-time staff dedicated to investigating and breaking news.
Sort of like what newspapers used to do. I think back in the day it was called journalism.
"P.S. - Congratulations, Josh and TPM"?
The George Polk Awards are kind of like the Golden Globes of American journalism . Not as well known as those Oscars of the news business, the Pulitzer Prize, the Polk Awards are nevertheless probably a close second in terms of prestige.
Just like the Oscars, the George Polk awards are basically another form of liberal self-congratulation. Other Polk "award" winners: Sy Hersh, Frank Rich, the New Orleans Times-Picayune for its Bush-bashing "coverage" of Katrina, Communist publisher Victor Navasky, Bill Moyers, blah blah blah.
If you make a list of prominent liberal journalists, it would read like a list of Polk award winners.
Great Conservative journalists like Bill O'reily, Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Lou Dobbs have been systematically excluded from the awards.
Great Conservative journalists like Bill O'reily, Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Lou Dobbs have been systematically excluded from the awards.
I think that answers itself, oxymoronically.
Regards, C
I'm continually amazed at folks who are taken in by Triumph's sthick.
The sad thing is that time I couldn't tell it was a Triumph post until I saw the byline. It's slightly less daft than Scott's post, after all.
I'm honestly not sure if Triumph is sincere or not. And if he's not, is Christopher? Or maybe they're the same person. I have no idea.
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