Shakesville

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Shakesville

Political affiliation progressive
Website shakespearessister.blogspot.com

Shakesville is an American political blog, publishing news and opinion from a progressive point of view. The site focuses on culture, politics, LGBT issues, and feminism.[1] It was started in October of 2004 by Melissa McEwan, who initially wrote under the pseudonym "Shakespeare's Sister," and gave the blog that eponymous name. Over time, more bloggers were added as contributors, and in 2007, the site was rebranded with its present name, in order to reflect the contributions from a diverse group of individuals.[2]

Contents

[edit] Content

Shakesville has a number of different writers, posting on a wide variety of topics. In addition to posts on politics and culture, posts can cover anything from old YouTube clips[3] to recipes.[4]. As a result of its heterodox content, the site was named the 37th-most informative blog on the internet in a study by Carnegie-Mellon University.[5].

[edit] Contributors

Besides McEwan and her husband, Iain McEwan (who blogs under the pseudonym "Mr. Shakes"), there are 23 additional contributors to Shakesville. Many also maintain their own personal blogs.

  • Arkades
  • Kenny Blogginz
  • Deeky
  • Jeff Fecke
  • Benjamin H. Grumbles (a parodic, pseudo-Victorian character named after, but otherwise unrelated to, an EPA bureaucrat)
  • Guest Blogger (readers and other bloggers sometimes write guest posts on various topics)
  • Kate Harding
  • The Heretik
  • Misty
  • Mustang Bobby
  • Nightshift
  • Paul the Spud
  • Petulant
  • Portly Dyke
  • Quixote
  • Chet Scoville
  • Shark Fu
  • Space Cowboy
  • Jon Swift
  • Tart
  • Todd
  • William K. Wolfrum
  • Zuzu

[edit] Controversy

In 2007, the presidential campaign of John Edwards hired McEwan to serve as its netroots coordinator.[6] At the same time, the campaign hired blogger Amanda Marcotte, the main writer at the weblog Pandagon, to head the campaign's weblog.

The hirings were quickly attacked by Bill Donohue of the Catholic League, who accused both McEwan and Marcotte of being anti-Catholic, citing writings by Marcotte that criticized the Catholic church. Though McEwan's writings were not criticized as much as Marcotte's, both eventually left the Edwards campaign.[7]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Inside Jokes, FAQs, & Wev « Shakesville
  2. ^ Inside Jokes, FAQs, & Wev « Shakesville
  3. ^ Inside Jokes, FAQs, & Wev « Shakesville
  4. ^ Inside Jokes, FAQs, & Wev « Shakesville
  5. ^ CASCADES project: Cost-effective Outbreak Detection in Networks
  6. ^ "Shakes on a Campaign"
  7. ^ Why I had to quit the John Edwards campaign | Salon News

[edit] External links