Twas the crack of dawn before Christmas, and one hundred angry, vitriolic politicians have aroused themselves at the crack of dawn in order to vote on the health care reform bill that most of the nation may or may not understand, but are willing to fight about anyway! In a last minute Christmas spiritish move the Senate moved the vote from 8am to 7am in order to let everyone attempt to get home for Christmas. Here’s the view from Twitter thus far.

It may or may not come to pass that 2009 was the year “real” journalism died (at least as we’ve come to understand the definition). Despite the plethora of hard news stories in 2009: the inauguration of our first black President, the economic collapse, health care reform, the Iran election, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc., it does feel like all the big news stories we actually recall in our year-end lists have been a bit…hollow.

Just this week the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA), which runs the White House pool has started letting Talking Points Memo, Salon, and the HuffPo in to share the pool duty. A number of establishment people are up in arms about “blurring the line between news and punditry even further.” Should we be worried the inmates are taking over the (clubby) asylum?

Talking Points Memo — the award-winning political blog with a knack for investigative reporting — is the latest news outlet to join the White House press pool. But some conservatives are upset that a progressive blog like TPM would get that kind of access, especially after the recent battle between Fox News and the White House. “Would anyone seriously suggest that TPM, the Huffington Post and Salon are more objective than Fox News?”

Salon’s Joe Conason weighs in on the “cosmic jest” of comparing the White House’s recent ‘war’ on Fox News to that of President Nixon’s policies against the press during his presidency. Conason thinks the only Nixonian handbook at play right now is that of Roger Ailes, and that some overzealous pundits should perhaps pick up a history book, or two.

Salon’s excellent 3-part series on Glenn Beck‘s Zoo Crew roots has restored a lot of focus to the impact that Glenn Beck’s instincts as an entertainer have on his political stances.
It has also had a hand in making a viral phenomenon out of this zany 1986 TV ad for Beck’s radio show, which involves balloons, cuckoo clocks, and a chimp named Zippy. Observe:

Conspiracy alert! As unlikely as it sounds, Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader whose controversial address to the UN is likely to dominate the news cycle for some time to come, inadvertently helped launch Glenn Beck‘s career as a political commentator. Here’s how:

Fox News host Glenn Beck has a unique interpretation of American populism and the Founding Fathers. But he also has his own ideological forefather who has gone largely unnoticed by a large portion of the media watchdogs who have tracked Beck’s meteoric rise. That is, until the incisive Salon exposé of W. Cleon Skousen, which ran yesterday online. Inside, we run down some of the article’s most revealing, juicy bits.

Eight years ago Philip Bump was living in California and woke up to the already-burning Twin Towers – a moment that would have seemed dream-like had it not been instantaneously jarring.

Like a growing number of others in a time obsessively concerned with the “digital divide”, he went to his desktop computer to get more information. Unlike many others, though, he took screen grabs of the sites as he visited them.

I wrote a piece of commentary about Joe Klein’s flame war with Glenn Greenwald yesterday in which I conceded Klein’s point about Greenwald’s publication of off-the-record emails. I also pointed out that Klein’s understanding of email confidentiality is shakier than a detoxing jackhammer operator. Rather than expressing appreciation for this turn of the tables, Greenwald had some reservations about the piece.

An online feud is heating up between Time’s Joe Klein and Salon’s Glenn Greenwald. Although the bad blood reaches back a stretch, at issue now is Greenwald’s publication of Klein’s off-the-record emails to the “Journolist.” Klein slammed Greenwald on Time’s Swampland blog: (h/t HuffPo)

What’s the difference between a Web magazine and a Web publication? We’re not 100 percent sure either. But apparently Web magazines harbor ineffectually bloated staffs and when before they turn into Web publications they have to give a few beloved staffers the axe — at least, according to Salon.

Want to protect yourself from Swine Flu? A deep-cleansing enema might be you best option, well, if you get your health advice from Arianna Huffington’s network of friends/bloggers. This is just one piece of HuffPo health advice marched out by Salon’s Vital Signs columnist Rahul K. Parikh in a post called “The Huffington Post is crazy about your health.” No, literally, they’re crazy.

Hemingway’s Moveable Feast, then and now; Eggers on Katrina; something about the world’s strangest frogs and other fun things we’ve come across during our day reaping the fruits of the Internet!

Who: Jay Rosen, Stephen Shepard, C.W. Anderson What: Gelf Magazine Media Circus “What’s Next For J-School?” Where: JLA Studios Art Gallery When: July 9, 2009 Thumbs: Down