Farewell. The Flying Pig Has Left The Building.

Steve Hynd, August 16, 2012

After four years on the Typepad site, eight years total blogging, Newshoggers is closing it's doors today. We've been coasting the last year or so, with many of us moving on to bigger projects (Hey, Eric!) or simply running out of blogging enthusiasm, and it's time to give the old flying pig a rest.

We've done okay over those eight years, although never being quite PC enough to gain wider acceptance from the partisan "party right or wrong" crowds. We like to think we moved political conversations a little, on the ever-present wish to rush to war with Iran, on the need for a real Left that isn't licking corporatist Dem boots every cycle, on America's foreign misadventures in Afghanistan and Iraq. We like to think we made a small difference while writing under that flying pig banner. We did pretty good for a bunch with no ties to big-party apparatuses or think tanks.

Those eight years of blogging will still exist. Because we're ending this typepad account, we've been archiving the typepad blog here. And the original blogger archive is still here. There will still be new content from the old 'hoggers crew too. Ron writes for The Moderate Voice, I post at The Agonist and Eric Martin's lucid foreign policy thoughts can be read at Democracy Arsenal.

I'd like to thank all our regular commenters, readers and the other bloggers who regularly linked to our posts over the years to agree or disagree. You all made writing for 'hoggers an amazingly fun and stimulating experience.

Thank you very much.

Note: This is an archive copy of Newshoggers. Most of the pictures are gone but the words are all here. There may be some occasional new content, John may do some posts and Ron will cross post some of his contributions to The Moderate Voice so check back.


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Wednesday, December 29, 2010

The Jon Swift Memorial Roundup 2010

By Steve Hynd


I'm having a bit of a break until after New Year's, but I couldn't let the Jon Swift Memorial Roundup 2010 go unmentioned.


Jon, aka Al Weisel, was one of the great satirists of Blogtopia - a remarkable long-form blogger who could convince you he was a social conservative right up to the final twist of the pen. I first got to know him several years ago over the Great A-List Blogroll Slasher Horror, which led to Blogroll Amnesty Day. I corresponded with him off and on and always found him a fount of wisdom and compassion. He loved the blogging medium and firmly believed the non-A lists were where the real talent always lay. Al passed away back in February, tragically sufering two aortic aneurysms while en-route to his own father's funeral. He was and will long be sadly missed.


Just as Skippy and others have kept Blogroll Amnesty Day going, Battochio over at Vagabond Scgolar is keeping Jon/Al's other great contribution to B-list visibility going. I was proud to be asked to contribute to the round-up of "Best Posts of the Year, Chosen by the Bloggers Themselves" and chose one in which, after James Risen of the NY Times challenged bloggers to put away their PJ's and go do some reporting themselves, we did exactly that - and found Risen's source for his big story of the year had some vested interests in pushing said story.


You can read the Jon Swift Memorial Roundup 2010 here.



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1 comment:

  1. BatocchioJanuary 1, 2011 at 4:29 AM

    Thanks for participating and spreading the word, Steve. Have a Happy New Year!

    ReplyDelete

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