That's Award-Winning Tim Cavanaugh to You

Matt Welch | June 17, 2005

The Southern California Journalism Awards, which honor news organizations from San Diego to Santa Maria, threw some love in Reason's direction this past Saturday. Jersey boys-made-good Tim Cavanaugh and Nick Gillespie finished First and Second in Online Commentary; I was one of the three other finalists they crushed like a grape. Here's what the judges said about young Tim:

Writing is lively, entertaining and thought-provoking, but more important is Cavanaugh's resistance to pigeon-holing. His willingness to reject knee-jerk ideology makes each column a treat full of surprises designed to delight and fascinate the reader.

Our Democratic Convention coverage also won First Place for Best Weblog (partial judges' comment: "Reason uses well-placed humor to replace the mud-slinging and hate that all too often overflow from political coverage"); and my "Temporary Doves" essay pulled a Second.

Some friends of Reason were also honored -- former staffer Mariel Garza (whose blog is here) came in Second for Columnist of the Year, and Advice Goddess Amy Alkon got a First and two Seconds for columnizing and headline-writing.

How to top this orgy of self-congratulation? With a subscription pitch, of course! Twenty bucks (minus three cents) for one year is, as Jerry Brown might say, as reasonable as magazine deals get.

Comments

|6.17.05 @ 3:39PM|#

Great, kids! Don't get cocky!

|6.17.05 @ 4:22PM|#

Congratulations!

|6.17.05 @ 4:24PM|#

"His willingness to reject knee-jerk ideology makes each column a treat full of surprises designed to delight and fascinate the reader."

Translation: he doesn't know WHAT he thinks either!

Jk, Tim, congratulations, and well-earned. Your writing is very enjoyable.

|6.17.05 @ 4:27PM|#

Congrats to Tim and Nick and everyone who was honored. And Matt, remember it's an honor just to be nominated!

|6.17.05 @ 4:41PM|#

BS. Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing. Congrats guys.

Did UFP win for best online ad? That reminds me, I'm late for my next carpet humping.

drf|6.17.05 @ 4:55PM|#

Congrats!

and don't forget webmaster extraordinaire!

happy friday,
drf

|6.17.05 @ 5:16PM|#

So neither NRO or Salon made the grade, huh?

Doesn't surprise me, congratulations!!!

|6.17.05 @ 5:25PM|#

Congrats. No surprise here. I couldn't agree more. Quite a stable of talent at this little rage.

|6.17.05 @ 5:26PM|#

Tim, this is your big chance to get in some "Do you know who the FUCK I am?" action.

|6.17.05 @ 5:35PM|#

It might just be me, but it seems like Tim's blog posts have been getting longer and longer, often extending slightly into the 'this should be an article' range. Has the man just now found his voice? Will such deserved praise catapult him to heretofore unknown heights of word count? The mind boggles.

Heh. Congrats!

|6.17.05 @ 6:54PM|#

Congrats Tim.

Hurray for Amy too.

|6.17.05 @ 7:26PM|#

Way to go guys! Couldn't have gone to a better bunch of guys. 3/5 of the finalist were Resonistas, hurrah!

Now we need some awards for best blog comments. Judging by our competition from the left and the right, it's no contest. Stevo for best comedy, thoreau for best insight, joe for best contrarian, Jennifer for best, uh.... rack education commentary.

|6.17.05 @ 7:26PM|#

Curse you comments and your lack of strikethrough! (rack should've had a line through it)

|6.17.05 @ 7:45PM|#

Thank you, Mo.

By the way, we at Stevo's Rack Education Institute believe in a "hand's on" approach to learning.

|6.17.05 @ 8:15PM|#

YEA!! Kudos to Reason. Kudos to Tim, Nick and Matt. Matt, as Stevo said, it's an honor just to be nominated and also, you were up against stellar competition. It's so good to see Reason getting the acclaim it deserves.

I have a suggestion of a way for Reason fans to celebrate and tribute. What I do is I buy at least two issues at a bookstore each month. One for me and one or more to give to bookstore owners or magazine stand managers of bookstores that don't carry Reason, and I then urge them to do so. Sometimes, I try to buy my issues from stores that have recently started carrying Reason-Sort of gets the ball rolling. Some months, if I don't give one to a bookstore, I'll lay one on a friend or acquaintance. Try it. It's fun, and you will be spreading memes that may liberate us all.

The Wine Commonsewer|6.17.05 @ 9:03PM|#

Let me add my congratulations to the cacophony of praise.

|6.18.05 @ 1:53AM|#

By the way, we at Stevo's Rack Education Institute believe in a "hand's on" approach to learning.

Stevo, that was priceless!


Mo-

Well, it's an honor to be nominated. I second your nominations of Stevo and joe. Especially Stevo. As a happily married man I will refrain from commenting on your nomination of Jennifer.

|6.18.05 @ 1:58AM|#

And once again, a hearty CONGRATULATIONS to Tim and Nick!

|6.18.05 @ 2:19AM|#

What thoreau shouted.

Resonista: a libertarian who really likes hash.

Kevin

Peter K.|6.18.05 @ 4:58PM|#

Congratulations to Nick, Tim and Matt. Please keep up the good work.

|6.18.05 @ 7:26PM|#

"but more important is Cavanaugh's resistance to pigeon-holing. His willingness to reject knee-jerk ideology makes each column a treat full of surprises designed to delight and fascinate the reader."

What that means is that there is a rapidly growing audience interested in learning what it means to be a librarian.

|6.18.05 @ 9:17PM|#

Now that oldie moldie songs have been replaced on the radio dial by talk by Jerry Springer and Al Franken, do the websites of same have the equivalent of a "joe"?

I'm thinking joe gives us an aura of legitimacy in spite of ourselves.

THANKS, JOE!

|6.19.05 @ 1:43AM|#

Congrats guys! Now, about those corner offices...

|6.20.05 @ 12:35AM|#

Congratulations!

|6.20.05 @ 5:12AM|#

Congrats, guys.