Ed Morrissey

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Ed Morrissey is a prominent conservative American blogger. His original blog, "Captain's Quarters", consistently ranked in the top 10 blogs as determined by The Truth Laid Bear.^[1] He now works full-time as a blogger for Hot Air.

1 Background
2 Captain's Quarters
- 2.1 Adscam coverage
3 Ed Morrissey in other media
4 Hot Air
5 Notes
6 External links

[edit] Background

Morrissey is based in Minnesota's Twin Cities and is part of the "Northern Alliance Radio Network", with ties to Power Line and Hugh Hewitt.

[edit] Captain's Quarters

Morrissey started his blog in October 2003, basing its name on his nickname "Captain" Ed. ("Captain" is "just a nickname", not a rank.^[2]) It focused largely on politics, from a conservative viewpoint.

The blog grew in popularity and readership. By 2007, the National Republican Senatorial Committee was calling Captains Quarters one of the five "best-read national conservative bloggers."^[3]

People who have written "guest posts" on Captain's Quarters include Senator John McCain,^[4] Congressman Duncan Hunter,^[5] and Senator James Inhofe.^[6]

[edit] Adscam coverage

In 2005, a Canadian judge issued a gag order that barred Canadian media from covering the hearings of the Gomery commission, which was investigating the "Sponsorship scandal" (better known as "Adscam"), a scandal involving allegations that the Liberal Party of Canada had been funneling government funds through Canadian advertising firms.

A source in the Canadian legal media - still publicly unknown - circumvented the gag order, feeding the details of the Gomery hearings to Morrissey, who published them on the blog.^[7]

As a result, Morrissey's blog became for a few weeks one of Canada's most-viewed news sources (his traffic rising at the height of the story to 400,000 visitors a day, mostly Canadians, from his usual 30-40,000). Morrissey's coverage was considered by some to have been a key factor in the victory of the Conservative victory in the subsequent national elections.^[8]

[edit] Ed Morrissey in other media

In July 2006, Morrissey began writing for the Heritage Policy Blog, which is hosted by the Heritage Foundation.

Morrissey is also an occasional columnist with several news outlets, including the New York Sun and the American Spectator. He is also a co-host of the Northern Alliance Radio Network.

In April 2007, Morrissey left his job as manager of a call center to take up a "full-time position with Blog Talk Radio as Political Director."[1]. Morrissey hosts a daily internet talk show, contributes to one of the company's blogs, and leads outreach and development for the company among politicians, candidates, and political bloggers.

[edit] Hot Air

On March 1, 2008, ^[9] Morrissey became a full-time blogger, joining the pseudonymous Allahpundit at Hot Air (blog), a group blog established by Michelle Malkin.