whatever already!

Apparently what I wrote is true. I checked it on the Internet! Famous bloggers Joshua Micah Marshall and Ana Marie Cox did in fact work for the American Prospect. And they both also started their blogs after having been fired or forced to depart by one of the magazine's founders, Robert Kuttner.

One can read more about this here.

(My first attempt at creating a link. Pathetic huh? I promise all of my readers that I will fix that later, and learn how to properly link. Of course, I still don't have my first unique visitor.)

This post was later updated to properly include the link. I have learned how to link!

The Village Voice's Cynthia Cotts had this to say two years ago when Kuttner fired Ana Marie Cox and forced out Joshua Micah Marshall as Washington editor of the magazine, when nobody could have ever guessed that they would be featured in a cover story in the New York Times Magazine about bloggers:

"Cox's demise may have been foretold in her mission, which was to gradually shift the magazine away from the dry policy pieces favored by Kuttner, a Boston-based economics expert. To be successful, Cox had to put herself in the crossfire. Some have suggested that Meyerson stood by as Kuttner shot down his number two, while others insist that Cox's personally cost her the job. Either way, the firing of a top staffer was traumatic, managing editor Lisa Hisel quit the next day....

"Two names of departed writers surface again and again-- Joshua Micah Marshall, who was too far to the center for Kuttner's taste, and Robert Dreyfuss, who was too far to the left, Marshall became the first Washington editor of the Prospect in September 1999. But over time, sources say, Kuttner began strong-arming Marshall to "toe the line ideologically." Kuttner thought Marshall "liked Al Gore too much," says one. Things came to a head this past March, when Marshall announced he WA quitting to freelance.

"Marshall's successor was Robert Dreyfuss, who contributes to Mother Jones, Rolling Stone, and the Nation. But Dreyfuss quit this fall, after clashing with Kuttner over the proper editorial response to the September 11 attacks. Dreyfuss wrote a piece for the Prospect's Web Site, he recalls, in which he said "what happened on September 11 was a crime" and called for the attacks to be handled "by the appropriate international authorities." A few days later, the piece vanished, and Dreyfuss soon learned that Kuttner expected every voice in the magazine to support the war effort....

"Kuttner declined to comment on marshals departure. Of Cox, all he would say is that "nobody here is ever fired frivolously or capriciously." Nothwisthstanding a "radical difference" of opinion, he said, "We very much regret Bob Dreyfuss's departure. I wish we'd handled that differently."

In my determination to become a successful blogger (not going so well so far; after all still hoping for that first unique visitor), I am contemplating writing for, or seeking, a job at the American Prospect, being fired by Robert Kuttner, and having nothing to do with my days... except blog. Not wanting to actually have to do that, however, perhaps I will have my fictional alter ego-- the one who spends his time emulating Mickey Kaus, walking around Washington D.C. singing that inane song to himself all day (hey Mickey! hey Mickey! You're so Fine!) seek an internship at the American Prospect.

(In terms of full disclosure-- and seeking a balance between disclosure and simply boring readers-- of which I am still without my first apparently-- I have written a relatively small number of online stories for the Prospect, mostly since Michael Tomasky has taken over as the Prospect's editor.)