If 2009 was a tough year for magazines and newspapers — and boy, was it ever — it was a bang-up year for the editors of the blogs listed here. Now we are asking you, our loyal, smart, and attractive readers to share your thoughts on who had the biggest year in the Online Editor category:

At 3pmET Mediaite’s own Managing Editor Colby Hall will be appearing with intrepid Washington, D.C. reporter Tommy Christopher on The Ed Morrissey Show with the noted Hot Air blogger. We will discuss the Mediaite Top 50, as well as talk about the top stories of the year, and the innovative first year of Mediaite.

If you’re online then you’ve probably already heard: after 13 hours of negotiations with Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska, the Democrats have announced that they have the 60 votes they need to pass a health care reform bill before Christmas. And though there’s more to be done, things are looking good enough for President Obama to comment. But how did the internet react to the news?

In today’s Washington Post, Howard Kurtz zeroes in on the latest media trend: “Conservatives jumping ship,” as evidenced by the recent defections of Little Green Footballs’ Charles Johnson and The Atlantic‘s Andrew Sullivan. Huh? This isn’t to pick on Kurtz: why did these non-defections get the media traction that they did?

At 3pmET Mediaite’s own intrepid Washington, D.C. reporter Tommy Christopher will be appearing on The Ed Morrissey Show with the noted Hot Air blogger. Other guests on today’s show include Kevin McCullough and Caleb Howe. Using Ustream you can participate in the chat live inside!

The saying goes “Dying is easy, comedy is hard,” but what about combining the two activities? A new video from the Onion News Network features the kind of dark, irreverent humor and high production values that have become their stock-in-trade, but with an added twist: a quasi-death wish for Glenn Beck. The clip is called “Victim In Fatal Car Accident Tragically Not Glenn Beck,” and it has some people wondering if The Onion has crossed even its own far-flung line.

On Monday night’s “Countdown,” Keith Olbermann granted the Worst Persons gold to a quartet of conservative figures for jumping the gun when tweeting about White House visitors on Friday. Mediaite has exclusive reactions from three of them: Amanda Carpenter, Mary Katherine Ham, and Ed Morrissey. Why? Mostly because we can.

The story of “Balloon Boy” Falcon Heene has become the newest national joke, the “I’ma let you finish” du jour. While the story is absurd, the media seems to be ignoring the darkest chapter. Recently, Rachel Maddow and Countdown ran humorous segments about the boy’s live vomiting on NBC’s Today Show. They’re not the only ones to make light of this, but they are the straws that broke the camel’s back.

As online writing becomes increasingly a part of the mainstream dialogue in America, “blogger” is no longer a dirty word. Some of the best writers of our time operate exclusively on the internet, but some of the most talented still work under the radar. In this in-depth, magazine-length feature, Mediaite has assembled a list of 25 of the best underappreciated bloggers and explained why they matter.

Late yesterday, Larimer County Sheriff Jim Alderden told reporters that he expects to file criminal charges in the case of 6 year-old “Balloon Boy” Falcon Heene’s non-ride on a runaway helium balloon. He also said that his office was trying to obtain search warrants, and expressed disappointment that they could only file class 3 misdemeanor charges.

The announcement came on the heels of “Balloon Boy” dad Richard Heene’s bizarre press conference, in which he insisted there was “Absolutely no hoax,” then provided reporters a box in which to place their questions.

Balloon Boy Updates Here: Sheriff confirms that the flight was a hoax this afternoon in press conference. Richard Heene, Balloon Dad, will be charged with at least a Class 3 misdemeanor, if not federal charges, according to an announcement by Larimer County Colorado Sheriff Jim Alderden last night.

Richard Heene, the father of the infamous Balloon Boy, called reporters to his house this morning for a press conference of sorts. The man who has had the media, and frankly everyone on the Internet atwitter, made it seem like a big announcement would be made outside his home this morning. Instead, he only told the assembled reporters “Absolutely no hoax” before asking them to put their questions in a box so he could answer them later.

So did you guys hear about that kid and the helium balloon, but he wasn’t really in the balloon at all, and he was hiding the whole time? And it was maybe really just a publicity stunt by his somewhat off kilter family? Oh, you did? Really? Well it turns out he wasn’t just the embodiment of an anticlimax, he was also kind of a ripoff as well. Here are some people who really did some far-out things with balloons:

Wolf Blitzer was handed, on a mylar platter, the scoop of the day – “Balloon Boy”, Falcon Heene, responding to the question of why he hid in the attic so long with a tenuous, “You guys said that we did this for the show.” His father reacted like the jig was up (“Man…”); his mother, holding out hope, pushed back. I immediately sent the tweet “Um, I think the Balloon Boy just said he didn’t come out of hiding because, ‘we did it for a show.’ Wolf, want to check on that?”

Cable news took America on a wild ride today reporting of an amazing story of Falcon Henne and his wild balloon ride. Judging by Twitter the early cavalier snark turned to genuine concern when the boy was not found and images of items falling from the aircraft surfaced. Turns out he was hiding in a box in the attic. One can only wonder how much ad revenue the cable newers forfeited in going wall -to-wall — all because a 6-year-old was hiding in the attic?

Cable channels covered the soft landing of the balloon contraption that had earlier been reported to be carrying six year-old Falcon Henne. The balloon was empty at landing, but there was growing concern that the child may have fallen out mid-flight. Thankfully the boy has since been found safe, but the decisions behind the live broadcast of something potentially so gruesome is still worth questioning.

The bottom part of the balloon contraption is reportedly “not very well attached to the balloon” according to a local law enforcement official. Given the real chance that the six year-old on board could fall over 5,000 feet to the ground or even crash into a mountain, shouldn’t cable news cut away from wall-to-wall live coverage? Is a seven-second delay enough to avoid airing a potential tragedy?

As the father of a six year-old boy, I think not.

The NY Post alleged yesterday that Monday’s health care event held on the White House lawn was fraudulent and staged, specifically claiming that white lab coats were passed to attending doctors by WH staffers.

Earlier today, we tried to answer Ed Morrissey’s question “Why Was NY Post the Only Outlet to Report ‘White Coat-gate?” Initially, we thought the answer was that the story simply wasn’t newsworthy. It turns out it wasn’t even true.

Ed Morrissey at Hot Air wonders why the New York Post was the only major media organization to report this about President Obama’s Rose Garden speech to a group of physicians on Monday (what the Post calls White House’s Botched ‘op’):

The Drudge Report is currently running a red headline that says “See U.S. Military Snatch Protester…” that links to a YouTube video of what appears to bethe most absurd bit of street theater I’ve seen in awhile. Hot Air has already posted some extensive debunkage, but just watch the video, particularly the driver, who appears to be wearing Skechers:

If you knew one thing about Sonia Sotomayor in the days before her confirmation hearing, it probably had something to do with her ‘wise latina’ comment. But which crack journalist pulled this dirty tidbit from Sotomayor’s past and thrust it into the center of national news coverage of public debate? Are politically driven bloggers and cable news networks ruining “the life of kings” for journalists.

There’s a Barack Obama/Joker poster that’s spreading around the interweb like wildfire. It first surfaced back in April, but is catching on, now, in a big way.

The April Bedlam article noted a “Jim Crow quality” to the poster, and at least one writer has pegged it as being more than kinda racist. But might that be overstating it a little? Either way its existence seems to have achieved its primary goal of being provocative.