Scooter, Shooter and Firedoglake
15 February 2007 8:38 am by Taylor Marsh
Scooter, Shooter and Firedoglake –video update–
My friends over at Firedoglake got some
long overdue, well deserved press today. I hope you take the time to read the
New York Times article. Of course, most people out here know the blog
intimately and many read it religiously. To put a finer point on it, I can\’t imagine not making Firedoglake part of your daily habit. But what everyone over there has done
during the Libby trial has been way beyond what any corporate media outlet could
touch. One of the issues is knowing the players and the details down to the
last bit of minutia.
The perjury trial of I. Lewis Libby Jr., former top aide to Vice President
Dick Cheney, has drawn every major news organization in the country to the
federal courthouse in Washington. But none has fielded a bigger team —
or was more openly crushed by the defense decision this week not to put Mr.
Cheney and Mr. Libby on the stand — than Firedoglake.com.(snip)
“I wasn’t going to miss this,” she said. Along with bloggers
from the likes of Huffington Post and Daily Kos, Ms. Hamsher also does daily
trial reports for politicsTV.com. … ..For
Liberal Bloggers, Libby Trial Is Fun and FodderADDED NOTE: The MBA part of this story is incorrect, by the way. FDL is working on getting a correction. The other issue I neglected to mention is that the \”Media Bloggers Association\” is not responsible for FDL\’s access. It\’s one of those issues that is really annoying, because they weren\’t involved at all on FDL\’s part as far as I know.
Even during the whole health crisis that bubbled up again, Jane made it through
and on to the other side to make sure she was up front and center to cover Scooter
and Shooter. However, her fight goes on.
People just don\’t understand what we do out here and the commitment most of
us on the upper tiers, regardless of the difference in traffic that is sometimes significant, especially if you\’re a sole proprietor blog like mine, put into our work. It\’s not a hobby, but a calling, with many people having to support themselves through other jobs, or with couples living off one salary so the other can make a difference. The energy and sacrifice
is real.
What helped make Firedoglake\’s coverage of the Libby trial possible was donations.
That\’s incredible, but at some point all of us need to get to the level where
the Democratic Party donors, who certainly can afford it, understand our worth
and the way we push back against the corporate hack pack line. There is also the reality of the difference we make during election season. The last election cycle was a prime example. When Joe Sestak called to thank me he knew what I\’d done for his campaign, but he wasn\’t alone in appreciation, which also included Patrick Murphy, as well as others. The Webb team knows what we did for him, too. Even Senator Harry Reid, Schumer and other DC Democrats got the message last election cycle, but they need to do more. Democratic Party donors should be encouraged and willing to offer grants and other avenues for funding of blogs
that work as hard as Firedoglake and many others, including mine, to get stories
out. MyDD has BlogPac, too, that\’s worthy of support.
Last year I did work with Kerry\’s political PAC during the last months of
the election season, the Patriot Project, as well as was sponsored through MyDD by the SEIU to cover
the nurse lock-out during December in Las Vegas. I\’ll likely have another quick
sponsorship gig to announce perhaps later today. Things are looking up slowly
on the financial front, also because many of you took the time to donate to
this blog and make upgrades possible on my radio show, which is one avenue to
solvency. The corporate hack pack gets paid real cash. We should, too. Now, if I can just get my radio show back on the air I\’ll be
able to have contests to reward you, instead of asking you to support
this blog through your donations. Monetizing the efforts is the goal. Spreading
the word about this blog is another way to help out. Eyes on the page bring
bigger advertising bucks, as well as investment in my blog reporting and radio efforts.
Anyway, it was great to wake up and see Firedoglake in the headlines. Maybe it\’s a beginning of the blogs getting more respect from the corporate hack pack and beyond. We\’ve earned it.
UPDATE (10:00 a.m.): Glenn Greenwald has a great piece on this today at his new digs at Salon.com. I hope he\’s right, because I\’ve done a lot of investigative work and reporting over the years and fetting credit where it is due matters and isn\’t easy.
