Our staffers and interns here at TMU have been tracking the gradual decline of Josh Marshall's Talking Points Memo blog. Marshall once wrote long, thoughtful posts about the government and media and even finished a PhD thesis about Revolutionary War-era American politics while blogging. Now the site is screaming tabloid muck, chockablock with sexual scandals and handsome political celebrities (five photos of Rand Paul and one Sarah Palin on today's front page). We all have to get paid but selling yourself to loan sharks pitching a faux-populist message (see above ads) heralds the depths of desperation. It would be sad if the ad content wasn't so sleazy.
Update: Went back through old blog posts to see if I ever said anything nice about Marshall. Here's one compliment: "Marshall has done terrific work tracking government shenanigans--particularly during the Bush push to destroy Social Security."
Update 2: At least he stopped running those blogging heads videos where he talked to the camera about his opinions.