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2003 Koufax Awards—And The Winners Are…

It is time to announce the winners of the 2003 Koufax Awards for the best lefty blogs.

Congratulations are in order not only for the winners but for each of the Nominees and Finalists. Many people commented on the difficulty of choosing among the entries. Every category had a number of people deserving of the award. The winnowing process was very hard. Each winner is welcome to note the award by placing the icon appearing here at their site (thanks to Kevin Hayden for creating the icon).

Our thanks also go out to everyone who participated in the nomination and voting process. The response was overwhelming. That response is one of the reasons that the announcement of the winners has been delayed. We had thousands of nominations, votes, comments and emails to sort, tally and report.

Before announcing the winners, I would like to acknowledge a couple of people who, although they did not win an award, deserverd to do so. Kevin Drum of CalPundit was nominated in almost every category in which he was eligible. He made the finals and was a strong contender for Best Blog, Best Writing, Best Post and Best Series. In addition to adding a reasoned voice to the political debates, Kevin has stretched the nature of blogging with his original reporting, interviews and research. He is also a hit with the cat lovers of the world.

Teresa Nielsen Hayden of Making Light also merits special mention. She was a finalist for Best Writing, Best Post and Best Series. Teresa has a knack of finding interesting links from places off the beaten path. Her insider knowledge of the publishing industry opens a window into a different world for many of us. Read, for instance, Teresa’s classic post about rejection letters entitled Slushkiller. That is an early leader for the 2004 Best Post Award. Teresa is a treasure.

Now on to the winners ...

Best Blog

For the second year in a row, the Koufax Award for Best Blog goes to Atrios of Eschaton.

It should be noted that four other finalists received vote totals that would have won in 2002. Nonetheless, Atrios still has the Best Blog. The reasons are many. First is Atrios’s productivity. No one posts more often or on so wide a range of topics. As Observer noted in comments, “In the time it took me to type this, he updated again.”

It is not just Atrios’ productivity that makes him the best. Another commenter noted “I feel most at home at Atrios' whilst a big backyard party goes on. I smile, I laugh at the comment threads, I go check out the topics and insights of others I heard about at Atrios.”

Digby once said that Atrios “consistently (has)… his finger on the pulse. He’s the Beatles of Blogging. It's spooky the way he sees the trend before anybody else.”

That is exactly right. Congratulations to Atrios, the Beatles of blogging.

Best Writing

Many voters found the choice among the finalists for Best Writing to be excruciating. Julia wrote:

aaaaaaaaauuuuuuuuuugggggggggghhhhhhhhhh. They're all within the margin of error of the same score as far as the quality of their writing goes.

Jeanne D’Arc (last year's winner), Teresa Nielsen Hayden, and Jim Capozzola are among those with strong support in this category.

In the end, however, the 2003 Koufax Award for Best Writing goes to Whiskey Bar by Billmon. Billmon had eight (!) separate posts nominated for Best Post. His writing is clear, concise and insightful. That is a hard combination to beat. Congratulations Billmon for the first, but not the last, time.

Best Post

The competition was also fierce for the award for Best Post. Alas’s A Comment On Rape And "She Asked For It" explored an important social issue. David Niewert’s The Political and the Personal put into words what many of us had long felt but were unable to articulate. Kevin Drum broke new ground with his Interview with Paul Krugman. That was a blogger interviewing a columnist. That makes this post a blogger writing about a blogger interviewing a columnist. If you leave a comment here, that will be a …..

The 2003 Koufax Aawrd for Best Post goes to Billmon of Whiskey Bar for What a Tangled Web We Weave (the WMD quote post). Green Boy called it “a defining blog history moment.” Duckman GR noted that the post “bumped up the blogosphere from a mere annoyance to something they talk about in Davos, Switzerland at huge, big time economic forums.”

Congratulations Billmon, but not for the last time.

Best Series

We can tell from the Best Series finalists that the Valerie Plame story was big. Three people, Kevin Drum, Mark Kleiman and Josh Marshall made the finals for their coverage of that story. Each received significant support thereby splitting the Plame vote.

Charles Kuffner’s exhaustive and excellent coverage of the Texas redistricting issue also received strong support.

Despite those strong entries, the 2003 Koufax Award for Best Series goes to David Neiwert for Rush, Newspeak and Facism.

David Yaseen called it “an absolute tour de force.” As SG said of the series:

It speaks to the developing corruption of American Democracy itself. Rather than focusing on any one news event, it reveals the step-by step- despoiling of the entire political landscape.

Congratulations David. The award is well earned.

Best Single Issue Blog

The voting for Best Single Issue Blog was the closest of any category. This was the Florida of the Koufax Awards. Our first count resulted a an absolute dead heat between Bob Somerby’s incomparable Daily Howler for coverage of the media and Jeralyn Merritt’s Talk Left for coverage of Criminal Law Issues. Those two blogs could not be any more different but they are both excellent.

After scouring the three different email accounts where votes were sent, the tie was broken and a winner decided by almost the smallest of margins.

For the second year in a row, the Koufax Award for Best Single Issue Blog goes to Talk Left by Jeralyn Merritt.

Congratulations, Jeralyn, and thanks for all your great work. Nobody does it better.

Best Group Blog

Best Group Blog is a new category this year. We decided to include it because of the trend towards blogs with more than one voice (this one, for instance).

Working within a group allows for more frequent updates and provides a broader field of interests to be covered. Not everyone has the ability to produce as many posts as Atrios.

Groups can be large or small. Open Source Politics, for instance has a very large number of writers and received significant support. Pandagon has only two voices, Jesse and Ezra, and also received significant support.

Groups can consist mostly of academic types such as at Crooked Timber or professional journalists such as at Tapped, both of which made strong showings.

The 2003 Koufax Award for Best Group Blog, however, goes to Daily Kos.

Is Kos a group blog? Kos himself does not think so as he said in comments. With the inclusions of the Dairies, it is difficult to separate out the bloggers from the commenters. Nonetheless, with such distinguished alumni as Steve Gilliard (get well soon, Steve), Billmon, and Steve Soto and such current posters as RonK, Meteor Blades, DHinMI, Mr.Liberal, Trapper John, Jerome, Tom Schaller and others, the variety of voices and the high standard of each argues that it is a group blog.

In reality, I think of Kos as a community, not a group. That is what makes Kos special. This award goes out to the entire Kos community. I suspect that Kos himself would approve.

Most Humorous Blog

Humor is a matter of taste. What strikes some as funny leaves others cold. Some like the satire of Opinions You Should Have by Tom Burka. Some like the skewering of conservatives provided by Jesse. Some prefer The Poorman’s Gollum Still others like the general hilarity of J.C. Christian and His Norbiness. Snark, found in abundance at World O’Crap, is the preference of many.

The voting makes clear that nearly everyone likes TBogg. In an overwhelming vote, the 2003 Koufax Award for Most Humorous Blog goes to TBogg.

That is an award that everyone can applaud except, perhaps, Peggy Noonan, Ann Coulter and Ben Shapiro.

Most Humorous Post

If humor is a matter of taste, it stands to reason that the voting for Most Humorous Post would be fractured. It was. Nonetheless, one post stood above the others as the voter’s choice. The 2003 Koufax Award for Most Humorous Post goes to Atrios for his example if media coverage Preznit Giv Me Turkee.

Commenter Mike remarked that Atrios’ post “was better than a New Yorker cartoon.” That is high praise indeed, in my estimation. Silencia noted that the post “quickly entered the lexicon of my household, and still elicits giggles every time it is spoken, always in a plaintive, childish voice.” Yes, our media often speaks in a plaintive, childish voice and Atrios’ post captured that voice perfectly. Congratulations, Atrios.

Most Deserving of Wider Recognition

This is a new category and, in some ways, a problematic one. The lefty portion of the blog world is not one place. It is a series of overlapping communities. Think of it as a giant Venn diagram with many circles overlapping each other to varying degrees. A very good blog that barely intersects your particular circle may look as if it deserves wider recognition when in fact it is already widely recognized.

My favorite for this category is the Bloviator because Ross covers important public issues with reason, fairness and wit. Ross reads things and links to stories that are not within my normal sphere. I learn a lot from his site and I think others could learn a lot from his site so I thought he deserved wider recognition.

Other finalists, like Sisyphus Shrugged, Lean Left and The Sideshow have substantial overlap with my circle. We read a lot of the same stuff and have similar interests. I recognize the quality of their work and presume that others do as well.

I suspect that my experience is fairly common as the vote in this category was the most fractured of any. Every single finalist got significant support. Perhaps we should all just read them all. I will when God changes her mind and creates a 40 hour day.

That said, the 2003 Koufax Award for Most Deserving of Wider Recognition goes to South Knox Bubba. I thought SKB was already widely recognized as I read him regularly and he is in the top 100 in the Ecosystem’s traffic rankings. If SKB is not widely known to you, stop by, you will not regret it.

As Scaramouche said in comments, “I like to hear a liberal voice from the land where guys drive pickup trucks with the Confederate flag.” Me too, and I live in Georgia. Of course, Kevin Hayden gave the real reason to vote for SKB, at least among my generation, “I gotta give the edge to my fellow geezer.”

Congratulations to SKB from all of us geezers with liberal voices living in the South as well as from the rest of the voters.

Best New Blog

Okay, I screwed up. When I first announced these awards I defined a new blog as one that began publishing in the second half of 2003. Understandably, people began nominating blogs without checking the start date. I did not want to prevent people from saying nice things about other bloggers so I permitted the nominations to stand. At first, it was folks who barely missed the cut off date. That date began being pushed farther and farther back. That process resulted in having blogs that have been in existence almost a full year competing against blogs who have been in business only a few months. It was not fair.

To try to fix my error, I am going to award two Sandy’s in this category. The first is for the blog receiving the most votes in the category regardless of start date. The second is for blogs begun within the six month window originally stated. That “solution’ creates its own problems but it is the best I can come up with at the moment.

The 2003 Koufax Award for Best new blog, as determined by the votes for all finalists goes to Billmon of Whiskey Bar. That is Billmon’s third Sandy this year which is a remarkable achievement. Watch your step, Bill, you will have your arms full on the way home tonight.

The Koufax Award for the Best New Blog created in the second half of 2003 goes to Kicking Ass in a very close race with Baghdad Burning. The race was so close I had to count the email votes twice. Congratulations to Jesse and the gang over at KA.

I apologize to anyone who may have been slighted or overlooked by my error.

Best Expert Blog

Many people noted that Best Expert Blog overlaps with Best Single Issue Blog. I disagree. The emphasis in this category is on expertise not on narrowness of focus. For instance, Brad DeLong’s Semi-Daily Journal is not really a single issue blog. Brad writes about a lot of things including kids, teaching, media, politics, technology and things that just strike his fancy. There can be no doubt, however, that when Brad writes about economics, he brings a truck load of expertise to the discussion. That is why, I suspect, that Brad has such significant support in this category.

The 2003 Koufax Award for Best Expert Blog goes to Informed Comment by Juan Cole.

Cole is a Professor of Modern Middle East and South Asian History at the University of Michigan. As such he brings much needed expertise and historical perspective to issues surrounding Iraq, Afghanistan and the Middle East. Congratulations Professor Cole.

Best Commenter

Commenting at the blogs of others is an underrated skill. Insight, brevity and humor are needed to move the discussion along. We are fortunate to have a lot of really good commenters frequenting the boards around the lefty blogs. That abundance showed in the voting as commenters such as John Isbell, Thumb and Woot all drew significant support.

The 2003 Koufax Award for Best Commenter goes to John Emerson, also or formerly known as Zizka. More of Zizka’s writing can now be found at Seeing the Forest where he has become a regular.

Best Non-Liberal Blog

The category of Best Non-Liberal Blog is also known as the Drysdale. It is intended to identify the best blog by a non-liberal from the perspective of the left. Among the finalists, I favored the Talking Dog because as Julia pointed out in comments “why should a conservative win this award?"

The voters felt otherwise. This category is also notable because it had the highest ratio of voters who chose not to vote in any other category. The 2003 Drysdale Award for Best Non-Liberal Blog goes to Tacitus. Congratulations.

Best Design

In a perfect world, a blog’s design would be a blending of function and form. Some voters believe that this category should identify the blog design most pleasing to the eye. Many of those votes were split between Alas, A Blog and August J. Pollack’s Xoverboard.

This year, many voters were also interested in functionality. Those voters overwhelmingly chose Daily Kos as a result of the features added in the move to Scoop. This year, the plurality of voters were interested in functionality. The 2003 Koufax Award for Best Design goes to Daily Kos.

Pontificator noted that the new design at Kos “brings reader participation to a whole new level.” That reader participation caused #defy to comment that “I love the feeling of community at Kos.” The new design does much to promote that feeling. Congratulations Kos.

Best Special Effects

This one was a rout. When last year’s winner, Blah 3 cast a vote for Quiddity of Uggabugga, I knew we had identified a winner.

The 2003 Koufax Award for Best Special Effects goes to Uggabugga. PatriotBoy noted Uggabugga’s “fantastic use of graphics to explain complicated concepts.” I liked the comment of tomm. He noted that Uggabugga has “amazing skill. Amazing insight.” Quiddity is “just devastating and completely hilarious.” All true.

Congratulations Quiddity.

The 2003 Koufax Awards were a lot of fun for us and we hope they were fun for you. Should we do them again next year?

Posted by Dwight Meredith at February 17, 2004 01:27 PM | TrackBack