Back in July 2007 I showed up at HuffPost's Manhattan office with a suitcase packed with enough clothes to get me through the month while I looked for an apartment and launched OffTheBus. Even before our official launch many of you were peppering my inbox with emails, wanting to know what you could do to help. Among that initial circle of my newfound friends and acquaintances were Mayhill Fowler -- who later rocked the campaigns and campaign journalism with what we now know as "Bittergate"; Beverly Davis -- a veteran reporter who provided invaluable insight into the role that citizen journalists could play on the trail; Richard Riehl -- the editor of the much loved Roadkill, that tasty, daily collection of candidate gaffes; and Ethan Hova -- a Shakespearean actor from Los Angeles who co-wrote our first big story, "Romney Buys Conservatives."
Sixteen months later and our network has grown by the thousands. The staff also grew, as I was joined by Marc Cooper, Neil Nagraj, John Tomasic, and Hanna Ingber Win and intern Gabriel Beltrone. Mayhill, Beverly, Richard, and Ethan have been joined by a remarkable cast of home-makers, retired journalists, aspiring journalists, lawyers and doctors, actors and actresses, some curmudgeons and, yes, a few professional journalists. New friends are now old friends, and old friends are friends forever.
Together we have been credited with creating the genre of citizen journalism (New York Magazine). You have broken some of the election cycle's biggest scoops. You have also been described - by none other than the New York Times - as a "force in journalism."
We -- Marc, John, Hanna, Neil, Gabriel, Amanda -- couldn't be more proud of what we have all achieved together.
For just this once we are not going to ask you to write or report anything. Celebrate! Break out that champagne, beer, or wine (or for those young enough or so inclined, a coffee or chocolate cake) and make a toast! Or two. Or three.
Journalism isn't and never has been a monolithic craft. The profession has a rich and varied history that often gets lost in defensive justifications of the status quo. In this election cycle journalism as we know it evolved tremendously, and you played no small role in it. A unique breed of citizen journalists -- at OffTheBus and elsewhere -- opened up public access to information that conventional reporters cannot.
Yay!
If that toast turns you tipsy and you're inclined to express yourself in print, make your way to the comment thread below.
Here's to OffTheBus!
~ Amanda, Marc, John, Hanna, Neil, and Gabriel
Follow Amanda Michel on Twitter: www.twitter.com/AmandaRMichel
Now, my heart is full of joy and I truly wepted for the first time. These eight years of being under a police state, where our civil rights and liberities were taken away and replaced with what the government thought we should be thinking or feeling. I felt like I was living a life out of a nightmare and was never going to wake up from it.
But after all the celebrations, we need to get serious again and hopefully can use what you've begun as a rallying place to put a stop to what can only be called irrational right wing assults on our public discourse. Rush Limbaugh, Laura Ingraham, and Fox News have already begun to spread their angry and offensive lies. As a group, we must counter their influence.
I want you guys to know, though: it ain't over. So, find a way to keep up the good work.
The world depends on people like you.
In other words: KEEP ON WRITING AND REPORTING!
This journalistic experiment has proven to be very successful and if it keeps going, it will continue to enrich the media environment in untold ways. My many thanks to the entire Off The Bus staff. I'm sure I drove you crazy in the few short months I was on board with my occasional impatience. You were always gracious and accommodating and for that I am forever thankful. My best wishes to you all on your future endeavors.
You've already changed the world? What's next?!
It's the end of the campaign, but the beginning of something much bigger. I would love to see a continuation of this forum as we embark on a new era. It's been awesome. :)
Priceless.
Thanks to you and your cohorts for making this happen. What's next?
I spent Tuesday working the polls in Virginia and wrote about it for another blogsite.
http://blogcritics.org/archives/2008/11/05/170440.php
It was an extraordinary day for me, after volunteering for and writing about the campaign for so many months.
I, for one, am eager to see how Obama governs our country and I am fully prepared to give him the time and the room; I am also willing to allow him the leeway to mess up occasionally. I just appreciate the way he already speaks to the American public in a way that no president has yet to do: with honesty and real respect for our intelligence. THAT is what I find refreshing.
Fowler's best efforts.
p.s. Supporting Obama and seeing him win in Grant Park was also the highlight of my life!
Because I've got two stories in my head! And I went to that Prop 8 rally yesterday with a camera in my hand! Look what you guys did to me.
Thanks for that, by the way. Thanks -- as I said in an email once to Amanda -- for allowing me to be on the same page as Mayhill Fowler, whose political affiliation I was not certain about till a few days ago. What an honor to be there, really truly.
Thanks to John! And Amanda, I remember the apartment story. You also answer each question as if the recipient were the only thing happening, which I can't imagine is true.
Seriously, this isn't the end, is it? Say it isn't so.
Jodi
will arise the awareness that the most important decision of this century that this body
politic will make is whether corporations exist for the advancement of mankind or,..
mankind exists for the advancement of corporations.