So instead of lazily crediting this stuff to "the blog world," the media should write about these new journalists who created a brand new "echo chamber" (that's kind of a hackneyed expression -- can we compare it to Arkanoid or something instead) that beat a path around conventional wisdom (also a hackneyed expression -- I apologize).

While media elites were writing snooty articles implying that bloggers are obsessive losers in basements who can't make a difference and have low hit counts, the following people are responsible for exposing a scandal going to the heart of American democratic values, whose organizers went out of their way to keep the regular media in the dark, but were caught off guard by blogs and P2P.

For a long time it was just Atrios, who has linked to my Moon stories for over a year, providing a huge audience. Ron Gunzberger's Politics1 played a singular role this month, doggedly pursuing the story, and following with original reporting. Reason's "Hit and Run" opened the story up to new parts of the blog world. Buzzflash sent readers by the truckload. Roger Ailes, Corrente and Scoobie Davis have also been williing to link to Moon stories too weird for others to acknowledge. The Memory Hole, too (keeping information alive), and Pandagon (a blog with a good sense of the ridiculous). MuslimWakeUp moved this to Google News. Even the skeptics at Free Republic deserve credit.

Then there are the Bit Torrent trackers and warez hosters who kept the footage of the Crown of Peace event freely available on the Net, even after Congressmen (or someone) had it removed. Thanks go to BoingBoing, Metafilter, Adam Rakunas, Len, and every provider of the 20+ file seeds listed at Andy Baio's Waxy. You are all 31337, as we say here on the BBSes (that's "elite" for those of you taking notes from the Technology Desk.)

I can't possibly thank everyone who has helped see this project through, but my thanks go to everyone on this list, of 124+ blogs that have pushed this story, as well as LiveJournalers and other bloggers across the Internet.

Special thanks to Phil in Alabama, who has plugged this site on more message forums than one might think humanly possible, and was demanding coverage of this story on Bartcop, long before this blog existed, and Eric Ritezel for Web design assistance.

Non-blog thanks later. (This post has been edited for brevity)

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