Blogger wins major journalism award

Blogger Joshua Micah Marshall, editor and publisher of the widely read political blog, Talking Points Memo, has won the Polk Award for Legal Reporting, a major journalism award that for the first time has been given to a blogger.

From the announcement:

His sites, www.talkingpointsmemo.com and www.tpmMuckraker.com, led the news media in coverage of the politically motivated dismissals of United States attorneys across the country. Noting a similarity between firings in Arkansas and California, Marshall and his staff (with his staff reporter-bloggers Paul Kiel and Justin Rood) connected the dots and found a pattern of federal prosecutors being forced from office for failing to do the Bush Administration’s bidding. Marshall’s tenacious investigative reporting sparked interest by the traditional news media and led to the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.