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Atrios
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Duncan Bowen Black (born February 18, 1972), better known by his pseudonym Atrios , is an American liberal blogger living in Philadelphia. His weblog Eschaton is one of the most popular political weblogs, receiving an average of over 100,000 hits every day. Black was also a regular commentator on Air America Radio's The Majority Report.
Biography
After obtaining his BA from the Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Black obtained a Ph.D. in economics from Brown University in 1999.
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Encyclopedia
Duncan Bowen Black (born February 18, 1972), better known by his pseudonym Atrios , is an American liberal blogger living in Philadelphia. His weblog Eschaton is one of the most popular political weblogs, receiving an average of over 100,000 hits every day. Black was also a regular commentator on Air America Radio's The Majority Report.
Biography
After obtaining his BA from the Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Black obtained a Ph.D. in economics from Brown University in 1999. He has worked at the London School of Economics, the Université catholique de Louvain, the University of California, Irvine, and, most recently, Bryn Mawr College. He is now a Senior Fellow at the media research group Media Matters for America.
Black began his online political life in Salon magazine's Tabletalk messageboards under the pseudonym of Kurt Foster, then began blogging as Atrios, remaining pseudonymous for several years, and even joking that he was actually a high school gym teacher. According to Black, the name "Atrios" is actually a (misspelled) reference to a character named Antrios in the Yasmina Reza play 'Art' who paints the play's key "white painting on white canvas".
Before starting Eschaton, Black wrote (as Atrios) for the webzine Media Whores Online (now defunct). During the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston, he revealed that he had accepted a job at Media Matters for America and allowed his name and photograph to be published. He later said that as an academic he blogged pseudonymously to avoid attacks like those later unleashed on Timothy Shortell.
Eschaton
Black's weblog Eschaton is one of the most popular weblogs for liberal, progressive or left wing politics in the United States. According to Black, the name Eschaton is a reference to an imaginary sport in the novel Infinite Jest, as well as a word that is also used in the phrase immanentize the eschaton. Black considered the term a fitting metaphor for American political discourse.
The style of Eschaton is snarkier and more personal than liberal blogs enjoying the same level of traffic such as Daily Kos, generally featuring short entries on a variety of topics ranging from policy commentary to breaking news and links. Mockery of right-wing figures who are seen as buffoonish is a familiar staple. Posts are frequent — on the order of ten every day. The majority of posts are authored by Black (as Atrios), but there are occasional guest bloggers.
On June 29, 2005, Black described Eschaton as not a blog but an "Online Magazine of News, Commentary, and Editorial." Following a similar announcement from The Talent Show, this was a satirical reaction to Federal Election Commission hearings on the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act. Black had previously expressed frustration that the FEC might not apply the act's "media exemption" to blogs, which he regarded as equivalent to other forms of media including online magazines.
Recurring content
Eschaton has a number of tropes verging on in-jokes:
On Fridays, Black usually posts photographs of his cats, a practice originated by Kevin Drum and known as catblogging.
Black usually names a "Wanker of the day", which is often simply the name of a commentator with a link to another blog critiquing the person. The title is generally given to anyone who makes an argument Black finds dishonest or nonsensical.
After a bet between commenters Holden and others over whether the job approval rating for President Bush would fall below 40 percent by July 2005, Black began titling posts about the falling poll numbers as "Holden gets a pony", accompanied by a photograph of a toy horse (often My Little Pony).
After a period of scandals involving professional journalists such as Jayson Blair, Jeff Gannon and Judith Miller was followed by a number of columnists criticizing the supposed inaccuracy, anonymity, unprofessionalism, and unaccountability of blogs, Black began tagging items about professional journalism which exhibited these traits with "Time for a blogger ethics panel."
As a supporter of Connecticut Senate candidate Ned Lamont, Black prefaced stories about the race with "Nedrenaline", as a joke on Lamont's opponent, Senator Joe Lieberman, who used the term "Joementum" during his 2004 Presidential bid.
Atrios introduced the neologism Friedman Unit, or F.U., as a unit of time (six months). The term was coined in reference to the discovery by Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting of journalist Thomas Friedman's repeated use of "the next six months" as the time period in which, according to Friedman, "we're going to find out...whether a decent outcome is possible" in the Iraq War.
Appearance in Fiction
Atrios (portrayed by an uncredited actor) appeared briefly in the 7th Season West Wing episode Welcome to Wherever You Are (Episode 7x15) meeting with the fictional democratic presidential candidate Matt Santos. Atrios was introduced by Josh Lyman (played by Bradley Whitford) as having "raised 300 grand online" and having "almost as many readers as the The Philadelphia Inquirer".
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