The Motley Moose is a political collaborative blog ^[1] primarily (though not solely) focused on American politics and issues. Based in Charlottesville, Virginia, the blog was established in September 2008 by twenty five regular contributors to political websites such as The Daily Kos, MyDD, The Huffington Post, RedState, and LittleGreenFootballs. ^[2]

History

The impetus for founding The Motley Moose was the 2008 Democratic Party presidential primaries, and the "flame wars" ^[3] that raged on political blogs (most notably MyDD). During the heated contest between candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, many Democratic and progressive blogs ended up aligning with one or the other candidate ( TalkLeft, for example was a primarily Hillary Clinton site while DailyKos was primarily a Barack Obama site) ^[4]. On the opposite end of the political spectrum, the mostly commercially-run conservative blogs RedState and LittleGreenFootballs began to systematically suppress writers supporting moderate or Libertarian-leaning Republican candidates, such as Texas Congressman Ron Paul. ^[5]

During the 2008 Democratic Presidential primaries, Jerome Armstrong, founder of political blog MyDD, was known in the blogosphere for his strident criticisms of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. "I was rooting that it would come down to Edwards and Clinton -- that to me represents a battle of Democratic values and ideas," said Armstrong. "Obama's candidacy is really just personality-driven, wrapped with quasi-religious overtures." ^[6] As a result, and in the wake of heightened tensions on the more popular DailyKos, many of the supporters of rival candidate Hillary Clinton migrated to MyDD, where they used it as a platform to criticize Obama. This fostered a great deal of animosity between the contributors to MyDD. ^[7]

Eventually, following then-Senator Obama's win in the Montana Democratic primary, Clinton supporters who were unwilling to support then-Senator Obama left to form the organization " PUMA" and advocate for the McCain/Palin campaign ^[8]. Partially due to a perception that Jerome Armstrong had tacitly supported and encouraged the animosity between Clinton and Obama supporters, a group of prolific bloggers at MyDD splintered off from the site after Obama won the primary. They were joined by several writers from right-wing sites RedState and LittleGreenFootballs, dissatisfied with the perceived partisan tone and broad censorship engaged in by those sites, and together formed The Motley Moose. Part of this history is described towards of the end of Flaming for Obama a piece in Prospect Magazine by Peter Jukes, about the primary wars of the nomination process. His piece concludes with the formation of a new community site by disaffected bloggers from both sides of the Primary divide:

In the meantime, some flaming occasionally flares on Daily Kos, led mainly by so-called purity trolls disappointed at Obama’s shift to the centre. MyDD has fewer diaries, and the comments are less rapid and intense. But another round of Republican trolls has moved into this vacuum (they came back in the summer just as they promised), and as a result a joint band of Obamaites and Clintonistas have had enough. They’re forming a new progressive blog called Motley Moose to provide a troll-free and properly moderated site in which to roam... ^[9]

The founder of MYDD Jerome Armstrong replied to Jukes' criticisms in a front page post on MyDD ^[10] but by this time The Motley Moose had already launched.

Aims

The Motley Moose was launched in an attempt to forge a new type of collaborative blog with the following properties:

• Tolerant of diverse opinions within a broad definition of political Progressivism/Centrism
• Founded by a consortium of active bloggers, rather than an individual
• Non-profit in nature
• Actively moderated in the Web 3.0 style pioneered by Drew Curtis

The term "Motley Moose" arises from the definition of the word " Motley" (Having elements of great variety or incongruity) and a reference to the Bull Moose Party. While many political blogs begin as "vanity blogs" started by a single user (such as The Daily Kos and MyDD), or run by a corporation (such as RedState), the Motley Moose is notable in that it was begun as the community-effort of two dozen individuals from all sides of the political spectrum (hence the "Motley" title). While the site membership leans toward progressive politics, it is one of the most active political websites that makes a conscious effort towards centrism.

Notable Contributions

The Motley Moose played a role in breaking a story about the McCain/Palin Presidential Campaign's alleged engagement in absentee-ballot fraud, which was then picked up and run by mainstream political new sites such as The Daily Kos and TalkingPointsMemo ^{[11] [12]}. Alongside the blog Raising Kaine, The Motley Moose was one of only two political websites ^[13] to conduct interviews with now-Congressman Tom Periello, who narrowly defeated incumbent Virgil Goode in what has been described as one of the biggest upsets in the 2008 election season. The article was also featured in The Cavalier Daily on the new role Virginia played in the 2008 United States presidential election. ^{[14] [15]}

Other notable articles include an interview with Zimbabwean politician Roy Bennett, following his release from prison for his support of Morgan Tsvangirai ^[16] as well as Drew Curtis, the proprietor of FARK.com.

Following the closing of Raising Kaine, The Motley Moose is one of the biggest remaining Virginia-based political blogs. It's articles are frequently cited for community review at The Daily Kos. ^{[17] [18]}

Contributors

The site has a number of regular and guest bloggers from the US and overseas. Some still blog anonymously, but among those who have chosen to write under their own names are:

• Former speechwriter for Prime Minister Gordon Brown and author Peter Jukes
• Long-time American Democratic campaign worker and consultant Joe Trippi
• American-born British columnist Sarah Churchwell of The Guardian
• Bulgarian intellectual Ivan Krastev
• Former federal prosecutor and law Professor Tania Tetlow
• American anthropologist Denise Oliver-Velez
• Huffington Post writers Michelle Gross (AKA 'Michelle Marshall) and Dawn Teo ^[19]
• Indian born environmental activist Malini Mehra
• Linda Hansen, author of the book "Yes, We Did: the Southern Argument for Progressive Change"

References

External links

• Motley Moose

Category:Political weblogs]] Category:American political websites]] Category:Political websites]] Category:American blogs]]