A Blogospheric Coming of Age Moment

The George Polk Award inevitably plays second fiddle to the Pulitzer Prize, but it commands just as much respect from journalists.

This makes the award of a Polk this morning to Josh Marshall and his staff at Talking Points Memo — the first time that a blog has been honored — so sweet and well deserved.

Josh started TPM back in 2000 as a bit of a lark, but it has grown into a full-time enterprise and a model for what blogs are capable of doing above and beyond the mainstream media.

TPM’s Polk is for its dogged coverage of the politically motivated dismissals of U.S. attorneys by the Bush administration, a story that the MSM at first pooh-poohed and then had to play catch-up on. Josh and co-bloggers Paul Kiel and Justin Rood did most of the muckraking, but were assisted by readers who helped them analyze important documents.

More than anything or anyone else, we have TPM to thank for the fact that Alberto Gonzales is back in Texas lawyering-up.

A hearty thanks is in order.

More here.