Six days after the 2000 presidential election, at 3:37 p.m. EST, TPM came into being with a few surprising words: “As if things couldn’t get any weirder, did you notice the name of the lawyer who made the Republicans’ unsuccessful arguments before that federal judge today?”
IIRC, it was Al Franken on his Air America show that turned me onto TPM during the recount of 2000 and into Bush v. Gore. I’ve been an daily reader ever since.
Franken’s show didn’t exist until 2003~
Bill Moyers urged NPR listeners to check out Talking Points during a speech he gave in 2007, about the challenges facing American journalists. I heeded his advice, and have been a faithful reader and subscriber ever since. Congratulations on a great 20 years!
I see after 20 years y’all are still letting spell-check do your proofing. FYI:
Throws ≠ throes
Conversion ≠ conversation.
This is an event you’ve thought about for a while, not breaking news. Surely there would have been time to proofread this. Shame on you.
Amazing how an error like that can stop a reader in his tracks and totally change his response to the story.
It is amazing. But all errors change the way many people react to an article. When I see something like Democrat senator I think “right wing troll.”
Fuck, I feel old. Here’s to another 20 for TPM and me!
For me it was the aggregator “Bush Watch” which also eventually introduced me to Daily Kos.
Ah, must have been somewhere else then. Back then I was wanting to learn everything I could about what was happening with election 2000 and Bush v Gore and came across TPM and started reading it regularly then. Maybe I stumbled across it looking for news & info on my own, but I thought I heard it recommended from someone/somewhere first.
It’s amusing to see Josh’s early posts refer to himself in the third person as “Talking Points.” I’ve been reading from the beginning, but I had no memory of that.
Read you in American Progress or some such legacy pub, and burnt orange background and no ads be came a 10+ hit a day addict. Then you (smartly) went News.
Congratulations JM on your success. Keep writing and I’ll keep reading,
At The Creation: Republicans fretted about the dire effects on the economy if the federal deficit was in balance. And then it was off to the Bush v. Gore. in December '00, A second budget deficit voodoo econ sacrifice in the summer, THEN the "world changed on 9/11. Why it all seems like such…seems like such an innocent time
Glad the Internet Archive was there for the beginning.
And I read TPM all the time-- you have turned out to be right many times that were not obvious as the story was unfolding-- good sign.
-brewster
Founder, Digital Librarian
Internet Archive
I’m thinking it was Bush’s runup to the Iraq War that brought me to TPM. I was following Atrios (Eschaton) and a TPM post was mentioned. Then I became a regular reader.
The much missed Molly Ivins mentioned Josh and TPM so I looked them up and have ben enjoying TPM since
My husband started following the blog back then, & occasional contributing when he found local news that he thought might be of interest. He converted me, & now I subscribe & read daily. Thanks, Josh!
Been reading TPM since the beginning - came via Eschaton. So happy to see it grow into what it has become - a first rate independent news organization.
Congratulations! They had muck. You had rakes.
I stumbled across it desperate for truth in regard to the runup to the Iraq War. then, like you, just kept coming back though it took a number years before I ever commented.
I’m surprised its 20 years. I remember reading you regularly before TPM and I contributed when you first went on your own. You’ve been part of my daily blogroll since.