Five years of The Reaction

By Michael J.W. Stickings

I'd totally forgotten about it, but my friend Carol Gee, one of our editors, just reminded me that it's this blog's anniversary this time of year, and, yes, it's actually today.

The Reaction is 5.

The first post, my first post as a blogger, went up on Tuesday, March 29, 2005.

I didn't really know what I was doing, just that I wanted an outlet and that writing a blog seemed interesting. I had no idea where it would go.

And it was slow at first. My second and third posts, foreshadowing a great deal, were on the media, or rather on (right-wing) media bias:

What I'm saying is that the pendulum has shifted so far to the right that a "pro-family" bigot like James Dobson is regularly invited to appear on TV to peddle his fear- and hate-mongering (tolerance/diversity = gay agenda) and Jerry Falwell is brought in to guest-host Crossfire. Look, I would object if conservatives were similarly excluded from the debate or equally held in contempt, as they once were. The U.S. is neither as liberal is it was perceived to be back in the '60s, nor as conservative as it is perceived to be today. What's wrong now is that the right sets the debate and has shifted perception to the right. It's established, if you will, a false north pole, with the compass pointing well to the right of the true middle of American life. And they do it, in part, by presenting themselves as revolutionaries fighting for ordinary "folk" (to use O'Reilly's stupid term) against the "liberal" media elite.

That sounds a lot like me today. I've grown a lot these past five years, but my basic views have remained remarkably consistent. If anything, I'm just more focused now in defence of liberalism and in opposition to conservatism (and the extreme right that now dominates the GOP).

A couple of days later, on March 31, I wrote a post on the brutal death, at the hands of Iranian security, of Iranian-Canadian photo-journalist Zahra Kazemi.

Then came posts on Terri Schiavo and Pope John Paul II, both of whom had just died.

And off this blog went, with just a few readers but also with a great deal of enthusiasm. I was happy to write, and happy if hits ticked past 50 on any given day. Ah, those were the days.

It's not that this blog has become an A-list site or anything, or that traffic is in the tens of thousands per day -- one wishes, alas -- but I am incredibly proud of what we have built here.

And I stress we, because I could not have done it alone. Vivek Krishnamurthy, a friend from here in Toronto, helped set it up, as I didn't have much of a technical clue, and became a valued contributor. Creature and The (liberal) Girl Next Door, along with Grace, signed on as co-bloggers, and it's now a true team effort.

Yes, I do most of the posting, I suppose, but I've got some outstanding editors, co-bloggers, and contributors on board -- you can find them over on the right sidebar. They have their own blogs, where they do great stuff, and I'm genuinely honoured that they continue to add so much this blog, day after day.

Blogging isn't easy, after all, and a lot of bloggers have just burnt out, and it's especially tough when you're not doing it professionally and have to fit it in amid everything else in your life.

I have made so many friends and acquaintances here in the blogosphere, most I've never actually met, people who now mean a great deal to me, starting with my great friends here at The Reaction. I try to thank them a lot, but I can never thank them enough. And a special thanks to Creature, my trusted deputy who redesigned this blog beautifully a couple of years ago and who has been with me for most of the ride so far.

Going way back, I must also thank Mark Schmitt, then of The Decembrist and the New America Foundation, now the executive editor of The American Prospect. He was one of the first big-time bloggers I contacted -- right out of the blue, just introducing myself -- and his kindness in response (and his kind words about what I was doing with the blog) really gave me the push I needed to keep going.

And then there was Steve Benen, who was similarly kind and who invited me to fill in for him at his old blog, The Carpetbagger Report, in August 2005. Steve has been a good friend and a great supporter, a mentor of sorts, and a model of excellence I've aimed to follow. Thank you, Steve!

And, of course, there's Joe Gandelman of The Moderate Voice, where I'm an assistant editor and where I've blogged for a long time now. He's one of my closest friends now, and I cannot possibly thank him enough for everything he's done for me over the years.

There are many, many others, too many to mention. All I can say is that blogging has been a great experience. It has led me to write for The Guardian and to become a blogger at The Huffington Post, to appear on TV and radio, and to make a bit of a name for myself. But it's the relationships that matter more to me, the people I've met along the way, from Mark and Steve and Joe to Skippy and Taylor and Melissa, Fixer and Barbara and Pamela, Glenn and Robert and Jason, Laura and Steve C. and Steve S., even, over on the right, Ed and James, among others. And that's just the tip of the iceberg, as they say.

And, of course, a huge, enormous thank you to all of you, the readers. I hope you keep coming back and that you tell everyone you know about us!

Alright, well, that's enough reflection and sentimentality for now. Let's get back to the blogging. Five years on, that's still what it's all about.