I heard the news early last evening at Drinking Liberally while talking to a KOSsack (doing the werewolves of London). Jason the KOSsack noted that it was official: Markos Moulitsas has been signed to write for Newsweek. As Markos noted in the announcement, heads will be exploding in wingnutlandia. My own first response was that Bill O’Reilly was likely as delighted as he could be, as this might be the only way he keeps his relevance. Bill O’Reilly can send his lawyers after media stars now, and not just at bloggers. Yeah, I’m seeing the heads exploding not in Wingnutlandia, since they’ll all be delighted that Markos is raised in stature. He’s going to be easier for them to aim at. I’m seeing the heads exploding in the mainstream media. As skippy the bush kangaroo aptly notes, Markos is crashing the page.

OK, maybe my real first response was to the effect that Markos has been doing a whole lot more leading and enabling in the blogzome lately than he has been writing and opining. Note even that announcement, so short and sweet. As a pundit or talking head, if that’s what he’ll be, I’m sure Markos is going to be fine. He’s a good speaker, entertaining, informative, and a refreshing change, accurate. But doesn’t he have to write, given that Newsweek is a print medium and all? Ah well, when I’ve seen Markos’ extended writing, it’s been fine. I’m just dying to see how he’s received by the old guard at Newsweek.

Imagine, if you can, George Will seated next to Markos on a panel on the Sunday shows, maybe we could make it a Greek sandwich, with Will in the middle surrounded by Moulitsas and Stephanopoulos. I can see the lead-in: “Two George’s, Two Greeks, and a blogger geek, This Week on ABC News.” I think I’d have laughed myself silly at Will by the introductions, so I can’t report now on what that odd confrontation might bring us.

Yes, things have changed. It used to be all of us in the blogzome were thought to be typing naked in basements or something. Then in 2004 and 2006 bloggers got invited onto the talking head shows, more as a curiosity than as a serious part of those shows, at least at first. Bloggers appearing on talking head shows had more in common with Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show performing in front of Queen Victoria, at least at first. During that time many of us bloggers got guest appearances on issue-based shows. We were seen as experts on particular issues. So Mike Rogers at BlogActive gets called in when the latest Republican is caught toe-tapping with men, and he’s been a VERY busy man.

It’s been quite a ride in these last (nearly) four years or so that we’ve been blogging here at All Spin Zone. We’ve gone from strange noms de plume to using our real names. (Hardly anyone calls me Doc anymore, though, and I miss that a bit.) It’s not escaped my attention that I’ve met most of the folks I’m writing about out there in the blogzome. No, I’ve not met skippy the bush kangaroo, though I love typing his name, but as a blogger here in Philadelphia, I’m hooked into the left blogzome enough to have met Markos, Atrios, Mike Rogers, Susie Madrak of Suburban Guerilla, Glenn Greenwald, now at Salon. . . the list goes on. Writers in the blogzome seek each other out, and here in Philly, that often happens at Drinking Liberally on Tuesday nights. But, barring Will Bunch, both blogger and mainstream media writer, I’ve yet to see a mainstream media type come and seek us out. These folks seem, from the perspective of those of us here in the left blogzome, as frightfully incurious. And incuriousness, if that isn’t too awkward a word, is about the last thing you want in a pundit, no?

I’m going to take the usual argument here, I suppose. The mainstream media is too entrenched in the halls of power. For them, even the wild irresponsibility and incompetence of the Bush era has been a mere blip, and because of their incuriousness, they’ve been enablers of this last eight years. Enablers even to the use of torture? Well, when the issue does not spark sputtering outrage on the part of pundits in the mainstream media. One imagines they get worked up far more about whether the topic of “torture” deserves more airtime than the topic of John Edwards’ hair. I suppose that isn’t incuriousness, but a mindset completely wrapped up in the business of news, instead of the reality of news.

We’ve prided ourselves here on the left side of the blogzome as being a part of the reality-based coalition in America, while the wingnuts live in some unreal zone all their own. I’ve certainly no doubt there will be some head explosions in wingnutlandia (like here), as Markos puts it. The real action after the announcement of Markos joining the Newsweek team, though, will be in mainstream medialandia. I eagerly await.