Top Five Online Stories Of The Year!
Are you ready for this?
I’ve recorded a brief video in which I lay out what I believe are the five top online stories of the year — the top five stories that showcased the world of online journalism at its finest.
My picks, in rough chronological order:
1) The release of the torture documents and Cheney’s response
2) The heath care town hall wars of August
3) The “birther” controversy
4) The campaign to force a public option into the health care reform proposal
5) The war on the left over whether to kill the Senate bill
The video makes the case for the importance of these stories and why they revealed online journalism at its best. My conclusion:
For all its flaws, the world of online journalism proved conclusively that it was able to make a transition from covering a campaign to covering government and covering policy. And if there’s one thing that’s clear about the online journalism world’s performance in 2009, it’s that they have no intention whatsoever of functioning merely as a partisan strike force on Obama’s behalf.
Watch the video right here, and while you’re at it, check out WhoRunsGov. Would be interested in your thoughts.
Special thanks to Beth Marlowe for her nifty editing job, which, among other things, got rid of my rambling and knuckleheaded mistakes.
This blog’s homepage is here. RSS feed here. Twitter feed here. Email me here.
Here’s to Marcy Wheeler!
wait, there’s a front page to this blog?-)
You look sleepy.
In regards to your last sentence…not only are they not functioning merely as a partisan strike force on behalf of this administration, sites such as Huffington Post are clearly out to destroy any confidence Democrats might have in this administration by using Drudge techniques of linking every failure to Obama and not highlighting any positive signs which could be attributed to policies enabled by this administration.
Looks like it hasn’t been updated much but it’s worth noting that whorunsgov has a youtube channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/WhoRunsGov
Greg Sargent – Superstar!
Keep your heads till
Hold head upright
Don’t blink
Would a little makeup kill you?
Not sure about white background
Keep up the good work, Greg. I really enjoy the blog and many of your commentors. Feliz Navidad y un Prospero Ano Nuevo!
and to add to “sbj’s” list:
No more hanging out in the greenroom with “Tena” before going on video;-)
Also: BETTER LIGHTING.
I like the sweater, but a tie and jacket is apparently supposed to make a person respectable.
Props to Beth Marlowe, the editing helped the fluidity of the presentation.
And props to you, Greg, getting in front of a video can be intimidating, it’s great to see you take on the challenge.
Blast from the past, Greg on Maddow show:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQD7ELc5Nmo
Please take the comments in the spirit they are given: Genuine interest in your success.
The same comments would apply to my favorite talk show host:
http://www.thomhartmann.com/thomtv-2.php
That’s literally the same blue shirt he’s been wearing for years. The jacket is relatively new, though. And everything they are paying for the streaming video, you’d think some decent lighting would be in the budget.
heh
Thanks NR — that’s the spirit I took them in. Appreciate it.
Happy Holidays to everyone here on the blog…thanks for helping to make 2009, and The Plum Line, a smashing success. Here’s to an even better 2010.
Rachel
Editor, WhoRunsGov.com
AWESOME GREG, can’t wait to watch.
Thanks Rachel. Ya’ll do a tremendous job here.
OT, check THIS sucker out:
“Folks on the right, and frankly I’m one of them in terms of voting record, have to yield to the world as it is and not necessarily how they wish it would be.” ~ John Cornyn (R-Neocon Fantasy World)
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5BM0LT20091223
Link by way of The Hill…
Nice Greg, I’ve never actually seen you before, other than a little tweet photo.
Thanks for giving all of us a voice in the political process and since I’m old enough to be your mother and the mother of many others here, I’m glad to not be hanging out in my mother’s basement, although I’ve been know to wear my pajamas a little too late in the morning.
Season’s Greetings all!!!!!
Isn’t the biggest online story of the year, actually about the emergence of an online site, as the place that got the big celebrity scandal scoops first, namely TMZ. They have now become the site, that much of the major media now cites; as in: “TMZ is now reporting”.
Great video Greg, and good picks on the stories as well!
My favorite from the list, unfortuante since it was based on a killing of the PO, was the vast policy debate that took place amoung bloggers about HCR. Not only did it show that this group is much more than the “kids in pajamas” that most in DC dismiss it as, but it went even further by really making clear the complete lack of a policy discussion that the traditional media partakes in.
There was more substantive policy debate about health care online in a week after the PO died, than since summer on all the major ‘news’ programs combined.
Woo Hoo Happy Holidays! I just got one of my Christmas wishes granted.
If y’all have noticed that I sign off with Free T.I. = well they did! They let my boy T.I. out early for Christmas and he’s in a halfway house.
Yay!
Now if they’ll just drop the stupid marijuana charges against Lil Wayne…
Seasons Greetings, peeps! I’ve been shopping, wrapping, singing Christmas songs and ignoring everything else.
But I want to wish y’all a wonderful holiday and a wish-fulfilling new year.
Top 5: How ’bout Sotomayor’s “wise latina” or gay discontent with Obama priorities?
Top Five:
How about Quitter Palin spending the last two days trying to black out her previous “Death Panels” Tweet, with the same Sharpie that she used to erase the memory of John McCain?!
Top 5: Iranian elections via twitter and “Climategate”
Greg:
3) The “birther” controversy
Are you serious? In the words of EPSN’s football crew, C’mon, man!
I liked “Mike from Arlington’s” post. It does seem to me that HuffPost has really deteriorated into some kind of mix between Drudge and scandal sheets. I’ve noted the disparity between the top stories on its site and virtually all the other more leftist blogs. I appreciate the latter for their detailed reporting.
What are the top five stories that the online sites, and/or the MSM did not pick up on.
One of them, that no one appeared to pickup on:
Mark Sanford; The Narcissist.
He fell in love with a person, who he called his soul-mate, because she looked just like him. He fell in love with his own reflection.
http://assets.nydailynews.com/img/2009/06/30/alg_maria-belen.jpg
Liam, I think that girl (though the pic is blurry] looks like Claudia Black who is one of my favorite actresses for two reasons 1)sas 2) Prominent sci-fi actress 3) hot! But that is neither here nor there…
I think the tea baggers in August is too specific, I think the general backlash against Obama from the old white conservatives has been a little breathtaking to me. That incorporates birther, tea baggers, and death panelists. I’m very happy that the policy side of blogging [along with its ability prove it can do real reporting] and how much it has grown, even if sites like Kos are blowing up at the moment.
Sarah Palin quitting her job as governor for NO frikkin reason was a big story, top 10 maybe but not top 5.
Here’s a great blog post that hits on my frustrations with the ideological left:
I would have thought that the top online story would have been the outcome of the Iranian elections, including the murder of Neda and the persistence of the people who kept the public informed using youtube and twitter.
You make a profound point, there, Greg, talking about the policy debate on the public option among Dems. It is something that traditional media is constitutionally unable to cover, even when/if they want to. They are constrained by the obligation to devote fully half of their story real estate/air time to Republican quotes, which have added literally nothing to the substance of this fascinating debate. And this is true even with the best of the mainstream reporters.
Greg
Since you have ventured in to my expertise (video communications) let me say, nicely done. Sure, you could use more production value but this gets the point across very well.
You should do more of these. And remember that one of video’s greatest benefit is the ability to transport the viewer to a location that they may not know or never get to see. You’re fortunate to be located in one of this country’s biggest gems. Maybe you could share that with us out here.
its really helpfull comments ….i like it…:)
Note that birtherism started in 2008, with Clinton-supporters.
I don’t like the phrasing employed in the list that implies that Single Payer was somehow tacked on to the house and senate bills by unnamed evildoers or something like that. Obama campaigned on a platform that some of us agreed with and elected him to fulfill, which he has subsequently run away from with a lot of bitterness, whinging, and bathos claiming in essence that “presidentin’ is hard,” just like the last clown. Nothing stopped Bush from putting the Constitution to bed with Patriot, MCA, and a raft of findings by crooked DOJ lawyers to give him unlimited power. Why can’t Obama use that excessive concentration of power in the presidency for the benefit of the American people for once?