Pushing Rope Fifth Anniversary

Pushing Rope turns five years-old today. The first post ever written was on the horrible punditry served up in the New York Times op-ed section. I think there was less than 40 page views the first day. PR started gaining traffic with its coverage of the Mark Foley scandal. I noticed that the St. Petersburg Times was informed of Foley's sexual advances towards a former page from Louisiana. I even got into a heated online exchange with St. Petersburg Times media critic Eric Deggans over his newspaper sitting on the story.

PR has evolved into a national economics and Florida politics blog. There are various regular features such as the Joel Award and Quote of the Day. Somewhere along the way PR became read by political journalists and the media. Former Creative Loafing political editor Wayne Garcia often linked to PR.

I had no idea how this blog would evolve when I first started it. Over time I cared more about policy than political party. I am not a conservative or a Republican. However, I will not hestitate to bash President Barack Obama, Blue Dogs, or Tim Geithner if they wish to enact policies that will hurt the American people. Protecting AIG bonuses or turning off the heat of poor people during winter is not what I signed up for. If you aren't willing to fight against that then you are being a cheerleader and not a progressive. We can get the same results with Mitt Romney in the White House.

The vast majority of people that read this blog follow politics. I don't expect to change their opinions. What this blog does is advocacy journalism. In order to do that there must be honest debate. The bloggers at PR are not trying to get anyone elected. We do want to hold Democrats and Republicans accountable. This is what the media should do. Unfortunately, the media is more concerned with access than angering the establishment. That isn't to say that there aren't good journalists. (There are.) On the flip side: there are bloggers making a living defending the two party establishments. That holds no interest for me.

This blog has been a joy to work on. I am grateful for the platform I have been given and the people who have helped me.

Zencomix started posting his great comic strips. Litbrit and Tas have written many great posts have have been patient enough to serve as editorial sounding boards for me.

Special thanks to Crooks and Liars, Feministe, Pam's House Blend, Lindsey Beyerstein, former Raw Story editor Ron Brynaert, The Sayfie Review, and Blue Gal for the links bringing much traffic to this site. Most of all thanks to all the readers.