A PULITZER PRIZE FOR BLOGGING FOR FIREDOGLAKE?

We didn't cover the Libby trial as thoroughly as many blogs did. That's because I kept urging DWT readers to go right to the source: our good pals at Firedoglake. Jane put together an incredible team of people-- from a prosecutor and a defense attorney to a psychiatrist and the author of the definitive book on the case, Anatomy of Deceit published by Vaster Media (operated by Firedoglake and Daily Kos). The FDL community even raised the money to rent a house off Dupont Circle where the team could stay.

The work Jane and her team did leading up to and at the Libby trial is historic and has changed the very definition of blogging. Jay Rosen, a distinguished professor of journalism and the former head of NYU's journalism department wrote a paen to the Firedoglake community's work today. In short, FDL covered this crucial trial, in terms of news and in terms of analysis, better and more thoroughly than the TV stations, better than the New York Times and better than the Washington Post.

Firedoglake got handed a golden opportunity by the reluctance of big news organizations to spend on the information commons. At the Libby trial, there was no broadcast and no taping allowed. No posted transcript for anyone to consult. Thus the most basic kind of news there is—what was said in court today—was missing.

Converging on Washington, the team from FDL felt they represented people back home who wanted to know everything, and certainly had to have the blow-by-blow when court was in session. This was their strength: a demanding core community behind them, which couldn't wait to discuss the newest events. Knowing their readers, the decision was a no brainer: working in shifts, we live blog the whole thing.

“It's a real shame no one is buying and Web-publishing the full trial transcripts,” wrote Dan Froomkin on Jan. 24. “In the absence of that, Firedoglake’s live-blogging of the trial is becoming essential reading.” Froomkin again on March 6 said that FDL “became a must-read for journalists who couldn't attend the trial, but wanted to get a better and faster sense of what was going on than they could from their own colleagues.”

Professor Rosen called the work that FDL did the "most basic kind of journalism imaginable." They reported; they analyzed; they interpreted. Jane and her team fulfilled the promise that we all knew blogging could-- and will-- be. There will always been a place for CNN for people looking for cookie recipes and bits and pieces of news between stories about Anna Nicole Smith and Barack Obama's late traffic tickets. And there will always be a place for Fox for people who need their darkest and most bigoted impulses validated. But for people interested in living inside the news, FDL is blazing a trail others will emulate in the future.

After you read Dr. Rosen's blog piece I want to suggest you take a look at the comments. These are people who care. These aren't the CNN or the Fox viewers and they're not the people who get the news from USAToday or from the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal.