The "Gilly"

I just want to say how honored and proud I am to have been awarded the first Gilliard Grant of Merit for Excellence in Journalism and News Blogging this morning at Netroots Nation.

For my readers who aren’t familiar with Steve Gilliard, he was both a pioneer of the progressive blogosphere as well as someone who dedicated himself to encouraging new and emerging bloggers in a true “lift all boats” spirit.  It’s not that I haven’t been putting in blogger’s hours just like we all do, through rain and day jobs and dark of night (particularly, dark of night), breaking down media bias and right-wing spin through through this visual approach of mine.  I also can’t say I’ve held anything back in terms of bringing the highest quality original photojournalism to the ‘sphere, while laying the groundwork for more.

Given the Gilliard mantle, however, I feel I need to and want to reach higher now, to match this accolade.

Thank you so much to The Group News blog, and especially Jesse, Lower Manhattanite, The Littlest Gator, Sara Robinson, Maggie, Terri, and especially, Hubris Sonic, for a perfect day.  And while I’m at it, I also owe a large hat tip to Jeffrey Feldman for having me on the framing panel.  Besides being one of the progressive movement’s leading thinkers when it comes to political rhetoric, he’s an excellent moderator, and it was a great kick both delivering my “ObamaPhobia” presentation (which I’m hoping to reproduce for The BAG) as well as working alongside the great David Neiwert and Andrea Batista Schlesinger.

And now, because I know Steve is watching (and, it’s dark of night), I’ve got to get back to work.

(image:  Lower Manhattanite/The Group News Blog)