“Today it begins …” was that first post’s title. And it began: “Yo. Today begins the grand abc news blog experiment. Blogs being built on spontaneity and opinion — neither of which big mainstream news organizations are particularly known for — but we’ll see how it goes … ”

Since then, “Down and Dirty” (as the blog was then called) became “Political Punch,” and a host of co-contributors joined in — Sunlen Miller, Karen Travers, Ann Compton, and many others. We’ve posted more than 7,600 items. For the first several years, the readership was so sparse I could post a picture of my cat as a lark and few would notice.

There have been some misfires, to be sure (all of which were my fault), but for the most part, I think (I hope) Political Punch has worked pretty well in allowing us to enhance our TV reporting with greater context and more information, to report news as it happens and break stories as soon as we have them confirmed (rather than waiting until the next show up), and to share with you information and observations that don’t rise to the level of needing to be reported on TV but may interest you nonetheless. (From that first week: the smell of the Hurricane Katrina aftermath, for example, or the process of reporting a World News piece.)

continued…

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