The votes are in and the 2004 Weblog Awards race is over. Congrats to Ace of Spades Headquarters, the only blog endorsed by me to win. So much for the crucial Rusty Shackleford endorsement.....

I have one bone to pick. I am pretty pissed about NRO's Kerry Spot winning for Best New Blog. Geraghty runs a great internet site, but it's not a blog. A blogger, by definition, doesn't have a boss. He might get paid through advertisements or donations, but he doesn't fill out a W-2. Geraghty is a columnist, Bill Ardolino is a blogger.

Kudos to Kevin Aylward who did his best to vet the process. I guess I'm partially to blame for some of the undeserving nominees making the final cut--I had promised him I'd help with the awards and then sort of cheesed out. Sorry, finals take a lot out of a guy. I had to decide whether to help with the awards or keep blogging. I chose the latter.

In the future, though, let's make sure blog awards go to, you know, bloggers. Not everyone who has a website is a blogger. Not everyone who writes online is a blogger. Bloggers are a community of the unprofessional. We are the pajamahadin. We are media entrepreneurs. We are what democracy looks like. We are the voice of the people.

We need to come up with a better definition for 'blog' and 'blogger'.

Ok, end pontification.

It was enough for me to make the final cut for Best New Blog of 2004. Thanks for the many endorsements--I lost track of them a day or so after the voting began. Shout out to all of you who didn't vote for me as instructed. Some props, too, for the homies who gave me their own awards. For instance, I received an award for Best Blog By A College Professor Who Can't Spell While Live Blogging During A Final Exam (in your face Llama Butchers) and one for Blogger most likely to appear under the headline 'Man Kills 5, Shoots Self' (update: read that one wrong earlier---I'm much happier with this one!!). I gladly accept those awards and thank all the little people that made this great occasion possible.....

Posted by: Rusty at 12:34 PM | Comments (11) | Add Comment
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