Editing Josh Marshall (section)

==Talking Points Memo==

===History===
[[File:Josh Marshall (506434140).jpg|thumb|Marshall at the Personal Democracy Forum in May 2007]]
Inspired by political bloggers such as [[Mickey Kaus]] and [[Andrew Sullivan]], Marshall started ''Talking Points Memo'' during the 2000 [[Florida election recount]]. "I really liked what seemed to me to be the freedom of expression of this genre of writing," Marshall told the ''Columbia Journalism Review''. "And, obviously, given the issues that I had with the ''Prospect'', that appealed to me a lot."<ref name='cjr-josh-marshall-plan'/>

He left his job at the ''Prospect'' early in 2001<ref name='cjr-josh-marshall-plan'/> and continued to blog while writing for ''[[The Washington Monthly]]'', ''[[The Atlantic]]'', ''[[The New Yorker]]'',<ref name="nytimes-fear-and-laptops"/> ''[[Salon.com]]'', and the ''[[New York Post]]''.<ref name='cjr-josh-marshall-plan'/> In 2002, Marshall used ''Talking Points Memo'' to report on [[Trent Lott|Trent Lott's]] [[Trent Lott#Resignation from Senate leadership|controversial comments]] praising [[Strom Thurmond|Strom Thurmond's]] 1948 presidential run as a [[racial segregation|segregationist]].<ref name='latimes-blogs-can-top-the-presses'/> According to [[Harvard Kennedy School]], Marshall was instrumental in fueling the ensuing scandal that eventually led to Trent Lott's resignation as [[Senate Minority Leader]].<ref name="nytimes-fear-and-laptops"/>

As a result of the Lott story, traffic to ''Talking Points Memo'' spiked from 8,000 to 20,000 [[page view]]s a day.<ref name='cjr-josh-marshall-plan'/> In the fall of 2003, as people focused on the failure to find [[Weapon of mass destruction|WMD's]] in [[2003 invasion of Iraq|Iraq]], there was a new surge of traffic to the site; "I remember there being peak days of 60,000-page views, which was really incredible."<ref name=nytimes-blogger-prize/> Marshall started selling ads on his site and by the end of 2004 was earning $10,000 a month,<ref name='cjr-josh-marshall-plan'/> making him one of a handful of what ''The New York Times Magazine'' dubbed "elite bloggers" who earned enough money to make blogging a full-time occupation.<ref name="nytimes-fear-and-laptops"/>

During the 2008 US election campaign, many independent news sites and political blogs saw a wave of "explosive growth".<ref name='comscore-explosive-growth'>{{Cite news
 |url          = http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=2525
 |publisher    = [[comScore]]
 |title        = Huffington Post and Politico Lead Wave of Explosive Growth at Independent Political Blogs and News Sites this Election Season
 |date         = October 22, 2008
|access-date   = October 26, 2008
|archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20081218000149/http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=2525
 |archive-date = December 18, 2008
|url-status     = dead
 |df           = mdy-all
}}</ref> ''Talking Points Memo'' experienced the largest surge in traffic,<ref name='wsj-huffpo-beats-drudge'>{{Cite news
| url=https://blogs.wsj.com/biztech/2008/10/23/huffpo-beats-drudge/
| publisher=[[Wall Street Journal]]
| title=HuffPo Beats Drudge
| last=LaVallee
| first=Andrew
| date=October 23, 2008
| access-date=October 31, 2008}}</ref> growing from 32,000 [[unique visitor]]s in September 2007 to 458,000 unique visitors in September 2008,<ref name='mediapost-political-sites'>{{Cite news
 |url         = http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticleHomePage&art_aid=93246
 |publisher   = MediaPost
 |title       = Huffington Post, Politico Top Political Sites
 |last        = Walsh
 |first       = Mark
 |date        = October 23, 2008
|access-date  = October 26, 2008
|url-status     = dead
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20120603125014/http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticleHomePage&art_aid=93246
 |archive-date = June 3, 2012
|df          = mdy-all
}}</ref> a 1,321% year-to-year increase in the size of its audience.<ref name='portfolio-lefty-sites'>{{Cite news
| url=http://www.portfolio.com/views/blogs/mixed-media/2008/10/22/comscore-lefty-sites-making-huge-traffic-gains
| publisher=[[Condé Nast Portfolio]]
| title=ComScore: Lefty Sites Making Huge Traffic Gains
| last=Bercovici
| first=Jeff
| date=October 22, 2008
| access-date=October 26, 2008}}</ref>

===Launching TPM Media===

In 2005, Marshall launched ''[[TPMCafe]]''.<ref>{{Cite news| url=http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0505/10/ip.01.html | publisher=[[CNN]]: [[Judy Woodruff's Inside Politics]] | title=Political Fundraising Trial Gets Underway; Senate Problems with Judicial Nominees Continue | last=Tatton | first=Abbi | author-link=Abbi Tatton | date=May 10, 2005 | access-date=May 18, 2007}}</ref> This site features a collection of blogs about a wide range of domestic and foreign policy issues written by academics, journalists and former public officials among others.

Marshall expanded his operation again in 2006, launching ''[[TPMmuckraker]]''. The site focuses on political corruption, and was originally staffed by [[Paul Kiel]] and [[Justin Rood]]. Rood has since moved on to ''[[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]]'' and its blog ''[[The Blotter]]''. Kiel has recently been joined by two new staff reporter-bloggers, [[Laura McGann]] and [[Spencer Ackerman]]. ''TPMmuckraker'' has attempted to organize its readers to plow through and read [[document dump]]s by governmental entities engaging in [[cover-up]]s.<ref>{{Cite news| url=http://www.nysun.com/article/50895 | publisher=[[The New York Sun]] | title=New Technique Lets Bloggers Tackle Late-Night News Dumps |  first=Josh | last=Gerstein | date=March 21, 2007 | access-date=June 15, 2007}}</ref>

''TPM Media'' operates out of an office in Manhattan and currently employs seven reporters, including two in [[Washington, D.C.|Washington]].<ref name=nytimes-blogger-prize/>

===U.S. attorney controversy===

{{2006 dismissal of U.S. attorneys controversy small}}
In 2007, Marshall was instrumental in exposing another national controversy — the politically motivated [[2006 dismissal of U.S. attorneys|dismissal of U.S. attorneys]] by the [[Presidency of George W. Bush|Bush administration]].<ref name="ep-polk-award"/> Marshall won [[George Polk Awards|The Polk Award for Legal Reporting]] for his coverage of the story, which "led the news media" and "connected the dots and found a pattern of federal prosecutors being forced from office for failing to do the Bush Administration's bidding."<ref name="ep-polk-award"/> ''[[Columbia Journalism Review]]'' also credited Marshall's news organization for being "almost single-handedly responsible for bringing the story of the fired U.S. Attorneys to a boil."<ref name='cjr-josh-marshall-plan'/> The ensuing scandal resulted in the resignations of several high-level government officials;<ref name='latimes-blogs-can-top-the-presses'/><ref name='ft-quick-off-the-blog'/> the Polk award in particular honored Marshall for his "tenacious investigative reporting" which "sparked interest by the traditional news media and led to the resignation of [[United States Attorney General|Attorney General]] [[Alberto Gonzales]]."<ref name="nytimes-blogger-prize"/>

After a weekend writer noticed that the [[U.S. attorney]] for the Eastern District of [[Arkansas]] was being replaced with a former adviser to [[Karl Rove]],<ref>{{Cite news| url=https://www.cjr.org/behind_the_news/how_talkingpointsmemo_beat_the.php | publisher=[[Columbia Journalism Review]] | title=How TalkingPointsMemo Beat the Big Boys on the U.S. Attorney Story | last=McLeary | first=Paul | date=March 15, 2007 | access-date=September 9, 2007}}</ref> Marshall discovered that U.S. Attorney [[Carol Lam]] was also being asked to resign. Lam had successfully prosecuted [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] [[California]] [[United States House of Representatives|Representative]] [[Duke Cunningham]] on bribery charges and was amid a criminal investigation into a congressional scandal of historic proportions.<ref name='ft-quick-off-the-blog'/> "I was stunned by it," Marshall told the ''[[Financial Times]]''. "Normally, in a case like that, the prosecutor would be untouchable."<ref name='ft-quick-off-the-blog'/>

National newspapers were slow to pick up the story.<ref name='ft-quick-off-the-blog'/> ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine's Washington bureau chief [[Jay Carney]] accused Marshall of "seeing broad partisan conspiracies where none likely exist."<ref>{{Cite news| url=http://time-blog.com/swampland/2007/01/running_massacre.html | archive-url=https://archive.today/20070502211844/http://time-blog.com/swampland/2007/01/running_massacre.html | url-status=dead | archive-date=May 2, 2007 | publisher=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] magazine | title=Running Massacre? | last=Carney | first=Jay | date=January 17, 2007 | access-date=September 9, 2007}}</ref> By the time ''[[The New York Times]]'' first reported on Lam's firing (on page 17), Marshall and his news sites had already posted 15 articles on the story.<ref name='ft-quick-off-the-blog'/>

Two months after posting his accusatory article, Carney apologized to Marshall. "Josh Marshall at TalkingPointsMemo and everyone else out there whose instincts told them there was something deeply wrong and even sinister about the firings...deserve tremendous credit." Carney went on to write, "I was wrong. Very nice work, and thanks for holding my feet to the fire."<ref>{{Cite news| url=http://time-blog.com/swampland/2007/03/where_credit_is_due.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070315180450/http://time-blog.com/swampland/2007/03/where_credit_is_due.html | url-status=dead | archive-date=March 15, 2007 | publisher=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] magazine | title=Where Credit Is Due | last=Carney | first=Jay | author-link=Jay Carney | date=March 13, 2007 | access-date=September 9, 2007}}</ref>

For doggedly pursuing the story, [[Arianna Huffington]] nominated Joshua Marshall and the ''Talking Points Memo'' team to the [[Time 100]].<ref>{{Cite news| url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1615198,00.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070430102201/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1615198,00.html | url-status=dead | archive-date=April 30, 2007 | publisher=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] magazine | title=The TIME 100 | author=Arianna Huffington | author-link=Arianna Huffington | date=April 26, 2007 | access-date=May 18, 2007}}</ref>