In its own words: "While run-on sentences, comma splices, split infinitives, and other such grammatical minutiae may rarely make appearances in the best of our nation’s dailies and weeklies, and a small but growing class of press watchdogs help to correct errors of fact (pointing out bias, factual omissions, and distortions), a more perilous corruption lurks under the clean surface of the printed page: specious reasoning." ... "Our contemporary political discourse is, to put it bluntly, a mess. As a population we simply are not trained in the basic logical, rhetorical, and analytic tools necessary to navigate the swamp of contemporary politics." ... "Logical analysis should be a first line of defense against the hijacking of our political discourse by cynical manipulators. Even without knowing the truth of the premises of an argument, one can determine whether or not the conclusion is justified by these premises. Sadly, as we will have ample opportunity to show in detail, many editorialists cannot even pass such a basic and fundamental test. This transforms their editorials from opinions that are worth taking seriously into mere nonsense and empty assertions. As we say, we are speaking 'validity to power' — not truth as the phrase usually runs, but validity."

In the editor's words: "Our mission at Truthout is one of education aimed at perpetuating and strengthening our American democracy. We are committed to making available a broad range of political news and editorial analysis. This central theme is the driving force behind everything we do. And even though we acknowledge that not everyone will agree with all of the decisions we make, we have Jefferson's faith that a citizenry well-informed by an independent and free press will be better able to make wise decisions for themselves in the support of our democratic institutions and principles."

With Talking Points Memo, Josh Marshall—along with his obsessive band of political reporters—is building the prototype of what an Internet-based news-gathering organization might one day look like. Don’t believe us? ~ GQ To get to the newsroom of Talking Points Media in lower Manhattan, you need to visit a pungent block of cut-flower wholesalers on Sixth Avenue, then climb a narrow stairway to an eight-hundred-square-foot suite that might once have been an accountant’s office. This modest space is the home of a news organization that—among several other notches in its belt—was almost single-handedly responsible for bringing the story of the fired U.S. Attorneys to a boil. ~ Columbia Journalism Review

In its own words: Markos Moulitsas — a.k.a. "kos" — created Daily Kos on May 26, 2002, in those dark days when an oppressive and war-crazed administration suppressed all dissent as unpatriotic and treasonous. As a veteran, Moulitsas was offended that the freedoms he pledged his life for were so carelessly being tossed aside by the reckless and destructive Republican administration. Daily Kos has grown in those five years to the premier political community in the United States... Among luminaries posting diaries on the site are President Jimmy Carter, Sen. Barack Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, and dozens of other senators, congressmen, and governors.