Truthdig

Truthdig is a news website that provides a mix of long-form articles, interviews, and blog-like commentary on current events, delivered from a progressive point of view. The site is built around major "digs" led by authorities in their fields who write multifaceted pieces about contemporary, often controversial, topics. Articles on Truthdig are open for comments, and the participants in the discussions tend to be left-leaning.

Truthdig was co-founded by Los Angeles entrepreneur Zuade Kaufman, who serves as publisher, and journalist Robert Scheer, who serves as editor in chief and writes a weekly column for the site.

Contributors
Some of Truthdig's most popular articles include "An Atheist Manifesto" by Sam Harris, and "President Jonah" by Gore Vidal, which compared President George W. Bush to the biblical Jonah.

In October 2006, Truthdig featured an exclusive 660-word essay titled "After Pat's Birthday" about the late NFL player and American soldier Pat Tillman's death written by his brother Kevin. The essay was widely distributed and was cited in The New York Times and Associated Press.

Other significant contributors include Robert Scheer, Chris Hedges, John Dean, Larry Gross, Scott Ritter, Amy Goodman, Juan Cole, Bill Boyarsky and editorial cartoonist Mr. Fish.

Exclusive weekly contributions such as Chris Hedges' columns and Mr. Fish's cartoons have won the news site a variety of awards and recognition throughout the years.

Awards
In both 2011 and 2010, Truthdig won the Webby Award jury prize for Best Political Blog against nominees including Atlantic Politics, Comedy Central's Indecision and The Huffington Post. . In 2007, Truthdig was nominated for Webby Awards in the categories of News, Politics and Political Blog. The site won the judges' award as well as the people's voice award for Best Political Blog.

In 2011 and 2010 the Society of Professional Journalists honored Truthdig resident cartoonist Mr. Fish as the recipient of its Sigma Delta Chi Award for Editorial Cartooning in the Online Independent category.

Also in 2011 and 2010, the Los Angeles Press Club named Truthdig Best Website Exclusive to the Internet in its annual Southern California Journalism Awards. Between 2009 and 2011, the Press Club has awarded top honors to Truthdig columnists, including Online Journalists of the Year Chris Hedges and Bill Boyarsky; Mark Heisler, Best Online Sports Feature for his Truthdig columns, "Role Models for the Id" and "It’s Not About Tiger Woods, It’s About Us"; Chris Hedges, Best Online Column for "One Day We'll All Be Terrorists" and "Party to Murder"; and Scott Ritter, Best Online News Story for the feature "Dinner with Ahmed."

In 2009 and 2008, the weekly Truthdig Book Review, then edited by former Los Angeles Times book editor Steve Wasserman, won the Western Publishing Association's Maggie Award for Best Regularly Featured Web Column.