They did. Howard Kurtz at the Washington Post picked up the story of the so-called "inflamatory trail" she had left as a blogger. Then ABC's The Note passed along Kurtz's passage in full. Note that the press picked up the "Marcotte is a feminist potty-mouth" angle, but not the charge that she had deleted posts from her archives.

Either way, the progressive blogosphere promptly swung into action, with takedowns coming out on several well-placed, but slightly lower-profile sites. Whiskey Fire and Ezra Klein tackled National Journal's Danny Glover on the facts, with Ezra Klein noting that Glover didn't bother to email Marcotte for comment about the missing posts, whose URLs had changed during a software update. Whiskey Fire focused more on the right's pattern of getting it wrong. Jill at Feministe and Jessica at Feministing looked at the gendered aspects of the smear, noting Dan Riehl's comments about Marcotte's looks. Jessica's post also discussed the similarities betwen attacks on Marcotte's looks and accusations surrounding the photo Jessica took with other progressive bloggers and President Clinton. At least a couple of these posts were picked up by higher profile pages, Atrios quite prominently among them.

The right has fallen back from the "the cover up is worse than the crime" chatter since there wasn't actually a cover up, but that leaves the storyline the media actually gave a damn about still in play. We'll see what happens with this tomorrow. Regardless, the timeline of this controversy is interesting. Breaks over a weekend, stews for a couple days as a conservative blog swarm builds, breaks in the media on Monday, progressives respond with their own swarm once they know that the charges had begun to get traction. This is absolutely fascinating to me.

UPDATE: edited for clarity, sorry.

1. As a boy my family did historical recreation, principally attending encampments recreating the rendezvous of the Rocky Mountain fur trade as they existed before 1850. Civil War reenactments would have been too easy, also too martial, to appeal to my family's sensibilities. As a result I spent maybe a dozen weekends through the year, and at least one solid week in the fall that I got off school, running around in handmade buckskin clothing and sleeping in a tipi. I can honestly say that I learned more during those weeks than I did during most of the rest of the year.

2. After reading The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe as a boy I went through a period where I would spend long stretches of time in my closet, occasionally pushing on the back wall, because I lacked a wardrobe.

3. When I was a kid, maybe 10 or 12 years old, I went through a period where I spent a fair bit of time exploring the storm sewers underneath the little Eastern Shore town where I grew up. I usually did so with friends, most often armed with a flashlight and a BB gun in case there were rats. I know this had something to do with my viewing of The Goonies but it also might have had something to do with Steven King's It.

4. I get teary almost every week in church and occasionally find myself considering the ministry... like more grad school is what I need. This usually happens when I start mulling over how I would have handled a sermon differently.

5. I was a kickass Dungeon / Game Master during and directly after high school. There are several D&D group in jokes in my blurb in my senior year book.

Cripes... uhh... I'm tagging anyone who reads this and hasn't done it yet. HONOR SYSTEM! Post a link in the comments.

I got this from a Washington Post article, Rules for YouTube: Make Art, Not Bore. Good advice. The article speaks at some length about Yacht Rock, which is awesome. Heads won't sleep.

The oped is good. Read it.

Subject: Re: Obama run for the Presidency

Probable U. S. presidential candidate, Barack Hussein Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, to Barack Hussein Obama, Sr., a Muslim from Nyangoma-Kogel, Kenya and Ann Dunham, an atheist from Wichita, Kansas.

Obama's parents met at the University of Hawaii.

When Obama was two years old, his parents divorced. His father returned to Kenya. His mother then married Lolo Soetoro, a radical Muslim from Indonesia. When Obama was 6 years old, the family relocated to Indonesia. Obama attended a Muslim school in Jakarta. He also spent two years in a Catholic school.

Obama takes great care to conceal the fact that he is a Muslim. He is quick to point out that, 'He was once a Muslim, but that he also attended Catholic school.'

Obama's political handlers are attempting to make it appear that Obama's introduction to Islam came via his father, and that this influence was temporary at best. In reality, the senior Obama returned to Kenya soon after the divorce, and never again had any direct influence over his son's education. Lolo Soetoro, the second husband of Obama's mother, Ann Dunham, introduced his stepson to Islam. Osama (sic) was enrolled in a Wahabi school in Jakarta. Wahabism is the radical teaching that is followed by the Muslim terrorists who are now waging Jihad against the western world.

Since it is politically expedient to be a Christian when seeking major public office in the United States, Barack Hussein Obama has joined the United Church of Christ in an attempt to downplay his Muslim background.

Let us all remain alert concerning Obama's expected presidential candidacy.