Duncan Bowen Black (born February 18, 1972), better known by his pseudonym Atrios (IPA pronunciation: [ˈeɪ tri oʊs]), 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.^[1] Black was also a regular commentator on Air America Radio's The Majority Report. February 18 is the 49th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1972 (MCMLXXII) was a leap year starting on Saturday. ... A pseudonym (Greek pseudo + -onym: false name) is an artificial, fictitious name, also known as an alias, used by an individual as an alternative to a persons true name. ... Articles with similar titles include the NATO phonetic alphabet, which has also informally been called the “International Phonetic Alphabet”. For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words, see IPA chart for English. ... American liberalism—that is, liberalism in the United States of America—is a broad political and philosophical mindset, favoring individual liberty, and opposing restrictions on liberty, whether they come from established religion, from government regulation, from the existing class structure, or from multi-national corporations. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Nickname: Motto: Philadelphia maneto - Let brotherly love continue Location in Pennsylvania Coordinates: Country United States Commonwealth Pennsylvania County Philadelphia Founded October 27, 1682 Incorporated October 25, 1701 Government  - Mayor John F. Street (D) Area  - City 369. ... Air America Radio is a full-time radio network and program syndication service in the United States. ... The Majority Report is a show on Air America Radio, hosted by Janeane Garofalo and Sam Seder. ...

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. Indiana University of Pennsylvania (or IUP) is a public university located in the borough of Indiana, Pennsylvania, USA, sixty miles northeast of Pittsburgh. ... Doctor of Philosophy (Ph. ... Face-to-face trading interactions on the New York Stock Exchange trading floor. ... Brown University is a private university located in Providence, Rhode Island. ... The London School of Economics and Political Science, often referred to as the London School of Economics or simply the LSE, is a specialist constituent college of the University of London. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Catholic University of Leuven (french-speaking). ... The University of California, Irvine is a public research university primarily situated in suburban Irvine, California, USA; a significant portion of the campus falls into the neighboring community of Newport Beach. ... “Bryn Mawr” redirects here. ... Screenshot from Media Matters for America (Jan 6, 2006) Media Matters for America (or MMfA) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded in 2004 by liberal (formerly conservative) journalist and author David Brock; it is an organization that hosts a website featuring watchdog journalism. ...

Black began his online political life 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". A pseudonym (Greek pseudo + -onym: false name) is an artificial, fictitious name, also known as an alias, used by an individual as an alternative to a persons true name. ... Modern indoor gymnasium with pull-down basketball hoops. ... Yasmina Reza (born 1 May 1959), a multi-talented Iranian born in France, is a playwright, actress, novelist and screenwriter. ... The Faber edition of the English translation [1] Art (the quotation marks are part of the title) is a comedic play by Yasmina Reza, which raises questions about art and friendship. ...

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.^[2] A Webzine is an ezine hosted on the World Wide Web rather than in print. ... Media Whores Online, also known as mediawhoresonline. ... 2004 Democratic National Convention logo The 2004 Democratic National Convention culminated in the arrival of John Kerry on July 29 to address the delegates. ...

Eschaton

Black's weblog Eschaton is one of the most popular weblogs for left wing politics in the United States.^[3] According to Black, the name Eschaton is a reference to an imaginary sport, used in the phrase immanentize the eschaton, in the novel Infinite Jest. Black considered the term a fitting metaphor for American political discourse. In politics, left-wing, political left, leftism, or simply the left, are terms which refer (with no particular precision) to the segment of the political spectrum typically associated with any of several strains of socialism, social democracy, or liberalism (especially in the American sense of the word), or with opposition... To immanentize the eschaton means trying to bring about the eschaton (transcendent, spiritual, or future; the end of days, see eschatology) in the immanent (present or material) world. ... Infinite Jest (1996) is a critically acclaimed novel written by David Foster Wallace. ...

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. snarky (adjective) describes a witty mannerism, personality, or behavior that is a combination of sarcasm and cynicism. ... Daily Kos (IPA: ) is an American political blog, disseminating news and opinion from a largely liberal, progressive point-of-view. ... Look up policy in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Left-Right politics. ...

On June 29, 2005, Black described Eschaton as not a blog but an "Online Magazine of News, Commentary, and Editorial."^[4] Following a similar announcement from The Talent Show,^[5] this was a satirical reaction to Federal Election Commission hearings^[6] on the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act. Black had previously expressed frustration^[7] 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. June 29 is the 180th day of the year (181st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 185 days remaining. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Federal Election Commission (FEC) is an independent regulatory agency created in 1975 by Congress to administer and enforce campaign finance legislation in the United States. ... The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (BCRA) is U.S. Congressional legislation which regulates the financing of political campaigns. ... An online magazine is a magazine that is delivered in an electronic form. ...

Recurring content

Eschaton has a number of tropes verging on in-jokes: A trope is a rhetorical figure of speech that consists of a play on words, i. ... An in joke is a joke whose humour is clear only to those people who are in a group that has some prior knowledge (not known by the whole population) that makes the joke humorous. ...

On Fridays, Black usually posts photographs of his cats, a practice originated by Kevin Drum and known as catblogging. Binomial name Felis catus Linnaeus, 1758 Synonyms Felis lybica invalid junior synonym The cat (or domestic cat, house cat) is a small carnivorous mammal. ... This article is being considered for deletion in accordance with Wikipedias deletion policy. ... This article belongs in one or more categories. ...

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). This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...

After a period of scandals involving professional journalists such as as Jayson Blair, Jeff Gannon and Judith Miller was followed by a number of columnists criticizing the supposed inaccuracy, anonymity, unprofessionalism, and unaccountablity of blogs, Black began tagging items about professional journalism which exhibited these traits with "Time for a blogger ethics panel." Jayson Blair (born March 23, 1976, Columbia, Maryland) is an African American and former New York Times reporter who was forced to resign from the newspaper in May 2003, after he was caught plagiarizing and fabricating elements of his stories. ... James Dale Guckert (born 1958) worked under the pseudonym Jeff Gannon as a White House reporter between 2003 and 2005, representing Talon News. ... Judith Miller Judith P. Miller (born January 2, 1948), is an American journalist. ...

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. It has been suggested that this article be split into multiple articles. ... Seal of the U.S. Senate Federal courts Supreme Court Chief Justice Associate Justices Elections Presidential elections Midterm elections Political Parties Democratic Republican Third parties State & Local government Governors Legislatures State Courts Counties, Cities, and Towns Other countries Politics Portal      Senate composition following 2006 elections The United States Senate is... Edward Miner Lamont, Jr. ... Joseph Isadore Lieberman (born February 24, 1942) is an American politician from Connecticut. ... Joementum is a portmanteau of Joe and momentum. The word was originally coined by 2004 Democratic Presidential candidate Senator Joseph Lieberman (D-CT), who, shortly before coming in a disappointing fifth in the New Hampshire 2004 Democratic primary, insisted that his campaign was picking up Joementum. ...

Atrios introduced the neologism Friedman as a unit of time (six months). The term was coined^[8] in reference to the discovery by Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting of journalist Thomas Friedman's repeated use^[9] 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. A neologism (Greek νεολογισμός [neologismos], from νέος [neos] new + λόγος [logos] word, speech, discourse + suffix -ισμός [-ismos] -ism) is a word, term, or phrase which has been recently created (coined) — often to apply to new concepts, to synthesize pre-existing concepts, or to make older terminology sound more contemporary. ... One Friedman Unit equals six months. ... Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR), founded in 1986, is an American organization that works against and documents what it perceives as bias in the media, censorship, and erroneous reporting. ... Thomas Loren Friedman, OBE (born July 20, 1953) is an American journalist and author, as well as a three-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize and an op-ed columnist for The New York Times. ... For other uses, see Iraq war (disambiguation). ...

Trivia

• Black is one of two real-life people portrayed by actors on The West Wing. The other was Lawrence Lessig.^{[citation needed]}

The West Wing redirects here. ... Note: This article title may be easily confused with Lawrence Lessing. ...

References

For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... July 6 is the 187th day of the year (188th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 178 days remaining. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... June 30 is the 181st day of the year (182nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 184 days remaining. ... 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the CE era. ... March 17 is the 76th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (77th in leap years). ... 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the CE era. ... March 17 is the 76th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (77th in leap years). ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... July 19 is the 200th day (201st in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar, with 165 days remaining. ... 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the CE era. ... March 17 is the 76th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (77th in leap years). ... 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the CE era. ... March 17 is the 76th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (77th in leap years). ...

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Atrios

• Atrios's Eschaton
• Report From the Front: An MWO Reader tries to bring down The Nation and The Hunting of the Snitch - Atrios writing for Media Whores Online on The Nation columnist Christopher Hitchens (Snitch)
• Profile by The Philadelphia Inquirer's Dan Rubin