When people ask me who the most effective bloggers around are I tend to point to three blogs. FireDogLake, MyDD and Americablog. All three have a record of getting things done - donations to key fights from all three; whipping Senators and house members from all three; putting pressure on corporations like Disney or Microsoft that either push the right wing agenda (Disney) or buckle under to right wing pressure (Microsoft).

(Disclosure: I've written a few articles for FDL. I may again.)

All three are also capable of creating a story, or giving it oxygen to keep it alive. It was rightly said that everyone, journalists included, went to FireDogLake to keep up on the Libby story, and Americablog was responsible for the Jeff Gannon prostitution story.

All three also have their detractors. The most recent flare up is a fight over a post by TRex at FDL in which he attacked Culture Kitchen's Liza Sabatier for attacking FDL's Jane Hamsher in a post more generally about the controversy over the all-white bloggers meeting. Seems that Sabatier thought that Jane Hamsher, as a privileged blond white girl, should have been promoting more black bloggers when she was in Connecticut blogging the Lamont campaign.

Given how priviledged (sic) she was by having the time, money and access to blog the Lamont campaign, why couldn’t Jane Hamsher find as many black and latino bloggers in Connecticut and give them a voice and visibility through her blog?

Of course, a number of blacks and latinos post at FDL (as TRex points out) and CTBlogger, whom Jane linked to often, is black.

TRex then proceeded to lay into Liza's writing and blogging ability and suggested (his wording) that she shouldn't assail her betters... and the shit hit the proverbial fan. Because, of course, although in the context of the post TRex clearly meant people who are better writers than Sabatier, using the word betters in an argument that is already racially tinged... is a bad, bad idea.

And you can look at this technorati search to see a pile of posts that deal with the issue, and with the issue of the fact that president Clinton's blogger meeting was all white. FDL, Jane Hamsher, and TRex all wound up on the whipping post.

The "problem" with FDL in general, and TRex in particular is that they aren't genteel. They take roundhouse swings and don't use carefully minced words designed to keep elbows in and not offend anyone. This is why they are effective. This is one reason why they have a large audience. It is also why sometimes they do offend people - both the blackface picture during the Lamont campaign, and TRex's post are a natural outgrowth of what makes FDL an effective and popular site - a willingness to call it like they see it and not keep their writers bound to a rule of gentility.

Everyone makes mistakes. TRex used an unfortunately charged word. He says it wasn't meant to racially offend. And I wonder why he doesn't get the benefit of the doubt? I wonder why FDL is roundly attacked, after a record of being inclusive and being effective?

It seems to me that the symbols have become more important than the reality. FDL is run by two women and a gay Latino man and has black front pagers and there is no willingness to give it the benefit of the doubt or to say "their record is good, and they act on it in practice."

Finally - no one owes anyone links. Bloggers who want links need to understand that. And that's what TRex was getting at. In general you get a link because someone:

a) thinks you wrote a good article that they want their readers to read;
b) wants to comment on your article;
c) wants to trash your article.

Very rarely you may get a link because you promote a post. But in two and a half years I've been blogging, with literally hundreds of thousands of words written, I can count those on two hands, and most of them fall into the three categories above - I promoted them to someone I thought would find them interesting - and they then linked to me.

And hey, it may be a great article that the blogger in question isn't interested in. The best article ever written on a subject I don't care about ain't gettting a link.

Bottom line: FDL is effective. They have minorities on their front page. They link to minorities. It is not, however, their primary mission to be a minorities issue blog. Assailing them because they aren't, when they are an inclusive and effective blog, is tearing down a blog that has done a lot of good for progressives. Perhaps they don't meet the genteel purity test of checklist identity politics - but I will lay you long odds that no massively popular blog ever will.