It's a major award
Unless we find out that those cripple-hating bastards at Low Culture pulled the plug on Hilary Swank (Oh, like you didn't know), the 2005 Week Magazine Blogger of the Year Awards (a subset of the 2005 Week Magazine Opinion Awards) are unlikely to generate Oscar-level controversy and debate. Still, any time actual prizes are dangled in front of bloggers it's worth making at least a little fuss.
As with last year, the main awards -- columnist of the year, single-issue advocacy, and editorial cartoonist -- are selected by a distinguished array of writers and thinkers, while the blog business is fobbed off on bloggers. The blog panel was myself, Glenn Reynolds, and Jeff Jarvis, joined this year by Ana Marie Cox. Through a haphazard process of consensus, we sought to honor "bloggers who most consistently produced work that was thoughtful, provocative, and that made a difference." You know what that means: no goofy patois.
And the nominees are...
Hugh Hewitt
Low Culture
Power Line
PressThink
Matthew Yglesias
Yeah, I know, Radosh.net readers won't be impressed by the despicable politics and often blinkered analysis of Hewitt and Power Line, but credit where it's due: when they're on, they're on. And as far as shaping the national debate and making a difference, you can't argue with that. I've been a fan of Yglesias for a while, so it was nice to see consensus gel around him as the year's best progressive blogger (Josh Marshall won last year, when, now that I think about it, there actually was a fair bit of controversy, though not about the blogger portion of the event). I argued at first for Kos, but got vetoed on various grounds. PressThink's Jay Rosen impressed us for being able to explain so artfully what all the other bloggers are doing that is important. And Low Culture gets the nod for providing the most reliable, non-hacky comic relief in an often tense and distressing year.
They're all winners in my book, but the one true winner will be announced at a gala ceremony next month at the Kennedy Center (suck it, Bloggies!).
Comments
I would love to see Joan Rivers do a red carpet commentary on what bloggers wear to awards shows.
You are so missing the blog awards competition of the year: The Jewish and Israel Blog Awards.
One nominee has declared that a vote for her is a vote for world peace. Another nominee has named me the Bride of Satan because I'm nominated in the same category as he is. And there was monumental cheating in the first round; now in the finals, everyone's only allowed to vote once.
Of course I want to win! But really, I just would like for the competition to be over.
Voting happens here, in case you're interested in seeing a list of nominees:
http://www.israellycool.com/blog/_archives/2005/2/6/304515.html
Posted by: Esther | February 8, 2005 4:05 PM
More like "Weak" Magazine ... HA!
Posted by: Uncle Grambo | February 9, 2005 2:23 PM