25 Best Blogs 2009

Correction Appended: Feb. 18, 2009

When professional musician John Amato launched the Crooks and Liars political blog in September 2004, it featured something that was quite novel in those ancient pre-YouTube days: video clips. Today, Crooks and Liars is among the most widely read political blogs on the Web, and Amato — now known in blog circles as "the Vlogfather" — is recognized as a pioneer of video blogging. The video selections — snippets from government press briefings, Congressional hearings and TV talk shows — are the sort of clips that Jon Stewart uses for fodder, but this is a chance to see the video in its original unintentionally humorous context. Amato leans liberal, but his blog is an equal opportunity attack dog, taking a bite out of the crooks and liars on both sides of the aisle.

Sample Crooks and Liars post: I'm afraid Bill O'Reilly's Fox show is something of an existential threat to the existence of the universe.

Entry you'll never see: Congressman Barney Frank said something incredibly stupid on MSNBC last night, but I forgot to record it. Sorry.

The original version of this story misstated the blog's launch date, September 2004, as October 2003