TAPPED WINS HILLMAN AWARD. Since 1950, the Sidney Hillman Foundation (named after the progressive hero and founding president of UNITE-HERE's precursor, the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America) has given awards each year to "journalists, writers and public figures whose work promotes social and economic justice." As those who read the print New York Times may have noticed in an ad announcement in today's op-ed page, TAPPED was awarded the second-ever Hillman prize for blogs. (Josh Marshall won last year.) See more here. The folks listed in the announcement -- me, Ann, Ezra, Matt, and Garance -- are those Prospect staffers who've written for or worked on the blog since 2006, but of course the award goes to all of our contributors past and present. And it's a big honor. Given Playboy's ranking of us as one of the top political blogs last year, I should say that it's nice to be able to provide some kind of common ground at the nexus of Sidney Hillman and Hugh Hefner.
UPDATE: I should say, in case alert readers notice: Our boss Harold Meyerson is on Hillman's prize committee. In an outburst of ethical scruples that struck me as foolish at the time, Harold recused himself from judging the blog award. Happily, his vote was apparently not needed.
--Sam Rosenfeld