UPDATE: After a doubtless downpour of squawking from the liberal blogosphere, the paper of record in Washington added a few more blogs to their “best blogs” list. To these scrappy upstart blogs…Colorado Pols and Squarestate to be specific…we say welcome to the club. Maybe next time you can make it on the first try.
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Only a few years ago, liberals dominated the online world of politics in Colorado. Conservatives fretted that they were fast falling behind in the new arena of politics, to the point that they would never be able to catch up.
Oh, how things have changed!
Today, the Washington Post named the best state-based political blogs in the country and in Colorado, other than Denver Post's The Spot, conservative websites swept the awards. ColoradoPols didn't even garner a mention.
Before tooting our own horn, we must give recognition to our friends over at Complete Colorado and Peoples Press Collective for making the list as well. They have been around fighting the good fight far longer than us, and have helped lead the way to a new conservative (online) revolution in Colorado.
Recognition from the gold standard of political journalism via The Washington Post is big news for a little ol' blog like ours, especially considering we've been on the scene barely six months. We owe a great debt of gratitude and thanks to the readers who nominated us. We greatly appreciate your support, feedback and inside tips that have made the site what it is today.
For too long, conservatives were relegated to the comment section of newspaper articles or Coloradopols posts in order to get their message out. If there was a piece of news being steadfastly ignored by the mainstream media, there was no place to go to read about it.
Sure, talk radio has always existed as a bastion of conservative thought and news. But radio segments and stories don't show up in Google searches. Nor are they easily shareable.
The internet is important because it gives the power of news aggregation back to the people. You don't need millions of dollars and a paid circulation of thousands to impact the political conversation. In some cases, a free Facebook account and a sizeable friend list is all you need to change the game.
When an article is shared by dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of people, the mainstream news media is forced to sit up and pay attention.
Thanks for giving us the opportunity to explain the Colorado political world as we see it. Your Facebook shares and Tweets of our articles have given our stories legs they would never have without your support.
Conservatives are taking back the internet(s) and it's sure to drive liberals crazy. Without control of the internet, they only dominate the mainstream newspapers, TV stations and most universities.
Sorry, ColoradoPols, like Rollie Heath and his tax hike, your best days are behind you.
Nice Washington Post image!
Unfortunately for PeakPols, that is the logo of the official Washington Post Political Blog Network, NOT the “best political blogs of 2011.”
http://voices.washingtonpost.c…
In the Washington Post Blog Network, there is only one Colorado blog. And it’s not PeakPols.
http://voices.washingtonpost.c…
Please remove that graphic immediately, morons. You didn’t earn it and it’s not for you. Nice job stealing it from the actual owners, though!
Apparently Pols thinks they won an award, too. I think it’s only Mucius who ardently refuses to accept how cool it is. Whatever.
All I know is the endlessly stupid PeakPols is not a member of the Washington Post Political Blog Network. Please remove this image.
Anything that annoys liberal trolls like Detwater enough to make them get this pissy is completely worth it.
Keep it up!
It’s about damn time Republican leaning blogs received some needed recognition. I’m sick of the “other” liberal lefty insanity blogs getting credit in this state! Colorado is the greatest place to live on earth and I’m sick of the online world thinking that all we are is just “California-lite”, full of a bunch of tree hugging hippy socialists!
Good work! It really is an easy market to crash, and the Republicans have needed a strong voice for a long time. Keep it up!
“It’s just a list of blogs that exist and pass a nominal threshold of significance.”
Too bad Pols didn’t pass a nominal threshold of significance. 🙁
ts
Not that this is worth arguing about.
You’re above this nonsense, aren’t you? I think you know Peak’s grand acceptance speech for this “award” is utter pathetic bullshit, but you’re pretending not to know it’s bullshit.
“I’m ready for my closeup, Mr. Cillizza.”
~Colorado Peak Politics, Aug. 2, 2011
Apparently “Top Honors” in Peak-speak means being first alphabetically on a meaningless list:
Is anyone here going to admit that the Peak’s claim of having won an “award” is totally frigging ludicrous? Obviously the Peak is never going to admit it, preferring instead to burrow ever deeper into its own self-dug hole of public humiliation.
I’m not speaking for the Peak, but if you read the update you might realize that Pols and SquareState got added after much whining and sock puppeting in the comment section of the post about the winners announced initially.
It’s funny — do you not read your own blog? Square State poster Fong begged people to nominate the site after it lost out in the initial list.
Funny to complain about an award and then beg people to nominate you for it after the fact.
Tell me something, do you honestly believe that this was an “award” competition? Do you? Really? Wow.
On a related note, congratulations to the aardvark for winning the Top Mammal Award from Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary for the 97th year in a row.
try to re-write history all you want. The Peak and Complete didn’t need to plead to their troll-dwelling audience like Pols and Square State.
Whether or not it’s an “award” is not the issue, it’s just the simple recognition by a nationally respected news source that Conservative blogs are having an impact on news WITHOUT having to plead to some sort of a stay-at-home troll network. You just have to bitch and moan about the initial results (ala Al Gore circa 2000) because it makes your side look relevant.
That’s exactly how “The Peak and Complete” “won” a place on the “awards” list too — by having “fans” “vote” for them in the “poll” to “win” a place on the “awards” list. The fact that “The Peak and Complete” “won” a place on the “awards” list before other Colorado blogs only shows that supporters of “The Peak and Complete” have way too much time on their hands and/or are easily duped into thinking that an idiotic hit-generating gimmick at The Fix actually constitutes some sort of “award.”
Geez. You guys seriously buy into this kind of insipid bullshit, don’t you? That’s actually rather frightening.
Are you people in reality all a bunch of freakin’ junior-high kids or something? This is insane.
I challenge you to read the “rules” of the “awards” “contest” and demonstrate how there is any kind of merit-based competition involved. How in your understanding did the “winners” “win” the “awards”? What metric was used to “rank” the “winners”? (Other than alphabetic order, that is.)
Not that this foolishness even merits a comment, but this is not the Washington Post “naming” the “best state-based political blogs.” It’s just an idle hit-generating fluff exercise on Chris Cillizza’s blog, and as he notes:
This is just like one of those “polls” that Glenn Beck or Ed Schultz would do based on people texting A or B on some idiotically written “polling” question, and then pretending that the “results” mean anything.
You’re just pissed because your site, that piece of leftist commie garbage known as Square State didn’t get recognized.
Get over it, loser. The right is on top.
Both ColoradoPols and Square State are on the list.
It’s not an “award” as the Peak claims it to be. It’s just a list of blogs that exist and pass a nominal threshold of significance. The way to win this “award” is for someone to mention your blog in the comments section at Cillizza’s blog. That’s it. It’s not an “award.” It’s not some sort of competition. It doesn’t mean a damn thing. How many different ways does this have to be explained?
Again, this is really silly and pathetic:
= Yeah, right. Congratulations on your remarkable achievement, guys.
Cue Muttley:
Thanks for the kind words!
Like you, we’re deeply appreciative of the daily readers and fans that make CompleteColorado.com what it has become today.
Here’s to finishing 2011 strong, and having a great 2012!
Regards,
ts