Congrats to Michelle Malkin on a milestone!

A YEAR IN THE LIFE OF A BLOG
By Michelle Malkin · June 13, 2005 04:01 PM

This blog turned one last week! (BTW: Congrats to Karol at Alarming News, which turned the Big 3 today.)

First, some blogiversary expressions of gratitude:

Special thanks to the following people for their warm welcomes, words of advice/encouragement, and early links during mm.com's incipient days: John, Paul, and Scott at Power Line, John Hawkins at Right Wing News, Frank J. at IMAO, Jeff Goldstein at Protein Wisdom, Bill Ardolino at INDC Journal, Kevin Aylward and the Wizbang crew, Ace of Spades, Spoons, Captain Ed, and the folks at The Corner.

Warm thanks to my co-bloggers at The Immigration Blog. Thanks to all the commenters who contributed their insights and humor before the troll invasion forced me to shut down the comments section. Thanks to everyone who's blogrolled this blog. Thanks to the trackbackers who've provided great insights, new angles, and worthy criticisms. Thanks to all my advertisers and to Henry Copeland and the Blogads.com team. Thanks to the creative minds at Movable Type; Sekimori, who designed the site; and Mark Jaquith, who keeps things running smoothly.

Most of all, thanks to all of you who visit regularly, and provide valuable tips and feedback every day. Your continued readership and activism are deeply, deeply appreciated.

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Two figures have had an undeniable impact on this blog, as they have had on the blogosphere as a whole: Matt Drudge and Instapundit's Glenn Reynolds. Though he disdains the term "blog," Drudge was and is the O.B.: the original blogger. His entrepreneurial spirit is often taken for granted now, but he inspired many of us long before our blogs were born. Here's what I wrote about Drudge in December 1997 while working at the Seattle Times (reg reqd):

Matt Drudge is to plugged-in Internet news junkies what John Galt is to Ayn Rand acolytes: an anti-establishment renegade of mythical proportions who is defying a world in decline. The 30-year-old, self-made snoop runs an e-mail service and accompanying web site called the "Drudge Report." He has taken the world of journalism and politics by storm. While TV news ratings sink and newspaper circulation stalls, Drudge's site has exploded to 40,000 hits a day. Subscribers are alerted throughout the day to breaking world events, inside-the-Beltway scuffles, entertainment news and media spats.

With no formal training, no high-powered patrons, and a bare-bones home office in a cheap Los Angeles apartment, Drudge's admirers (myself included) consider him a scrappy symbol of free speech, independence and bootstrap journalism.

Funny how similar that passage is now to much of the praise being heaped on bloggers now--eight years later.

Reynolds' blog was one of the first I started reading, and remains one of the first I read every morning. Whether you agree with his politics or not, he sets blogospheric gold standards for ethics, etiquette, quality, and output.

A hat tip (see what I mean?) to both men for their contributions to Internet journalism.

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