BLOGGER OF THE YEAR
Michelle Malkin has a post up recommending several writers for Blogger of the Year - an award that Time Magazine gave out last year to Powerline but, for some reason, failed to follow up with an award this year.
Here are some of Michelle’s nominees:
* Michael Yon. Iraq war coverage without peer in either Blogland or the MSM.
* Ed Morrissey. His coverage of the Canadian scandal “Adscam” was both courageous and had real political impact.
* NZ Bear. While controversy has followed the Bear’s efforts lately in his ecosystem rankings, he is an undeniable force in Blogland.
* Brendon Loy. The Notre Damer’s Katrina coverage deserves some kind of award for its prescience as well as its clarity.
Here are a couple more of my own nominees:
* Michelle Malkin. Is there anyone who writes with such fearlessness in the face of the most obnoxious, obscene, and nauseating criticism imaginable? A writer who bridges Blogland and the MSM. A true blogger in the sense that her roundups of the “Big Stories” as well as her original reporting are always a link-rich reading experience, a smorgasbord of thoughts and attitudes that give context to any story.
* John Cole. Some can’t take Mr. Cole’s acerbic wit and acid pen. A bane to both wingnuts and moonbats, Cole’s reasoned defense of the Iraq war as well as his strong criticism of America’s detention policies brings thoughtful people of all political stripes to his site. A rationalist with a romantic streak, his fearlessness in taking on both the religious right and the unhinged left always makes him an interesting read.
* Jeff Goldstein. Featuring a caustic, Pythonesque sense of humor as well as a sharp and penetrating writing style, Mr. Goldstein can dismantle an opponent’s argument piece by piece, and with an intellectual cruelty bordering on the sadistic, hand the poor unfortunate’s brains back to him on a silver platter with a smile. Much more than a humor blog.
* Gregory Djerejian. An independent minded conservative who has an astonishing depth of knowledge of foreign affairs. Simply a must read if you would like to understand the War on Terror. His policy critiques of the Bush Administration are both devastating and well reasoned. Great insight that can be found no where else in Blogland.
* Jon Henke. While Q & O is a group blog, I always enjoy Mr. Henke’s take on issues because he mixes passion with reason - something very hard to combine successfully when writing about politics (Witness my site!) A true lover of liberty, there has never been an occasion where I have seen him inconsistent with his core libertarian beliefs. A conservative critic almost as much as he is a liberal one, Henke has a smooth, clear writing style that crystallizes issues in an intellectually pleasing manner. A joy to read.
For what it’s worth, I vote for Goldstein.
Comment by Doug F — 12/19/2005 @ 6:29 pm
[...] Thanks By: John Cole December 19, 2005 at 8:37 pm A nice compliment. Much appreciated. Filed under: Site Maintenance [...]
Pingback by Balloon Juice — 12/19/2005 @ 8:37 pm
Thanks for the kind words, Rick!
Comment by Jeff G — 12/19/2005 @ 10:54 pm
Rick - Thanks for the lovely post. And what exceptional company to be in.
Merry Christmas.
Best,
MM
Comment by Michelle M. — 12/20/2005 @ 1:18 am
The Poor Man made a noteworthy point the other day about an interesting facet of the conservative movement: “how even the tiniest example of wingnuttery is a near-perfect replica of the whole edifice, substantively consonant in every particular but scale.”
Michelle Malkin’s work, particularly her new book, *Unhinged*, is like that: a kind of embodiment in miniature, as it were, of the conservative movement as a whole. Just as Malkin ignores the clear presence of extremism within the ranks of conservatism and instead projects those tendencies onto her enemies, so too does the conservative movement as a whole.
And that, in the end, is the root of the problem.
Now, it’s true that *Unhinged* is perhaps the most lightweight of all the liberal-bashing tomes that have been flooding the market. In a year or two, its publication will have been long forgotten, and its impact on the national discourse will have been negligible in any positive sense, in no small part due to its innate lack of honesty.
http://dneiwert.blogspot.com/2005/11/unhinged-unhonest.html
Comment by Easter Lemming — 12/20/2005 @ 6:16 am
Lemming:
It’s a good thing you don’t read much. If you did, you would be horribly disappointed. Malkin has gone after many, many conservatives in her columns and on her websites for extremism. The fact that you are unaware of this only shows you to be the kind of idiot your comment implies.
Comment by Rick Moran — 12/20/2005 @ 6:28 am
“Michelle Malkin. Is there anyone who writes with such fearlessness in the face of the most obnoxious, obscene, and nauseating criticism imaginable?”
Well, my god! Let’s just roll her in maleable gold and polish her until she blinds the cosmos.
What makes John Cole better is that he is smart enough to realize the nuances, or even ambiguities, of most issues. Moreover he sometimes reviews beers. This is significant because he comes off as the sort of guy with whom I’d enjoy sharing a drink.
Malkin, by contrast, opines like someone who, had she been around at the Creation, would have been offering helpful hints.
Comment by chef — 12/20/2005 @ 9:37 am