Legal Schnauzer recently reached two milestones, and I never
dreamed we would approach either one. First, we passed 4 million page
views. Then, we reached the blog's 13th anniversary.
Both
are pretty neat when you consider that I started this little enterprise
with the idea that it probably would last a year or so.
Along the way, we have . . .
* Been named among the top 50 law blogs in North America,
the only truly independent blog on the list. All the others are
connected to law firms, law schools, legal associations, media groups,
or public-affairs organizations.
* Played a lead role in the ousting of corrupt political figures, such as Alabama "Luv Guv" Robert Bentley and his mistress "Home Wrecky Becky" Caldwell Mason, plus former U.S. Judge Mark Fuller. We played a supporting role in the investigative journalism that led to the conviction of former House Speaker Mike Hubbard. Most recently, we played a supporting role in the journalism that apparently led to the retirement of Jefferson County Probate Judge Alan King and the surprise resignation of U.S. Attorney Jay Town -- with Ban Balch playing a lead role on both stories.
*
Perhaps more than any other news site in Alabama, we've exposed the hypocrisy of "family
values" conservatives, reporting on the extramarital activities and
financial shenanigans involving U.S. Sen. Luther Strange and Jessica Medeiros Garrison; former GOP Gov. Robert Bentley, and the fully nude, gay-porn photographs of U.S. Judge Bill Pryor,
* On a story that has international implications, we've reported on former Trump Attorney General Jeff Sessions and his history of corrupt actions
dating back more than 20 years in Alabama.Substantial evidence suggests Sessions was in the middle of the KremlinGate scandal, which should surprise no one who knows about Sessions' background in "The Heart of Dixie, including his ties to the scandal-plagued Balch Bingham law firm.
When we gave birth to Legal Schnauzer back in the George W. Bush era, we did not have many other muckraking enterprises in the Alabama blogosphere. I'm pleased to report that we have some excellent company these days. Of particular note is banbalch.com, which came on the scene roughly four years ago and has become a highly influential blog in a relatively short time. Publisher K.B Forbes. is an aggressive investigator, with a colorful writing style, and we suspect that has made Ban Balch must reading for many in the Birmingham legal community.
As for our milestones, they start with our first post, which was titled "Is 'Your Honor' Really Honorable?"
and published on June 3, 2007. Some 4,164 posts later, we are still
cranking out the kind of investigative journalism that is found at very
few news outlets in Alabama, or anywhere else.
We're not certain when we
passed 4 million page views, but the current number from the primary
statistics service that we use (as I write this) is at 4,339,434. Our all-time unique
visits are at roughly 3 million.
For reasons I don't
fully understand, our second stat service (which is Google based)
provides significantly different numbers. It has our all-time page views
at 8.4 million, which means we passed 4 million there a long time ago. I
didn't sign up for the first stat service until I had been blogging for
several months, while the second one is attached to the blogging
platform itself, and that might explain part of the difference. But on a
daily basis, the Google-based counter provides a number that is roughly twice that of the independent counter.
Never have
figured out why that happens. I like the Google numbers better, but I
tend to look at the independent numbers as the official count for Legal Schnauzer.
The numbers show that our readership has steadily grown. After starting the blog on June 3, 2007, we reached 1 million page views on or about July 15, 2011. We reached 2 million page views on or about February 25, 2015. We' published a post about hitting 3 million page views on July 5, 2017. This post, about passing 4 million comes on Nov. 11, 2020.
That
means it took a little more than 4 years to reach 1 million, another 3
1/2 years to reach 2 million, another 2 1/2 years to reach 3
million, and another 3 years to reach 4 million. That indicates there is a serious appetite for the kind of
journalism we produce at Legal Schnauzer -- and I would say
that's a good thing, especially given that we have been in an
era of public corruption unlike anything this country ever
has seen. And much of it likely has ties to Alabama.
Legal Schnauzer clearly
has made an impact, largely because of readers who follow and support
us, and sources who help inform us. Regular readers know that our kind
of unbridled journalism comes with a price, especially in red states
like Alabama and Missouri, where corruption flows like a river.
In
October 2013, I was kidnapped by "law enforcement" from inside our home
in Birmingham and tossed in jail for five months. In essence, I was
"arrested for blogging," reporting on the gross corruption that only
recently has caught the attention of the state's somnolent mainstream
press. In summer 2014, forced from our home by a wrongful foreclosure,
Carol and I landed in Springfield, Missouri, where I grew up. In
September 2015, we were the targets of an unlawful eviction, which
included cops pointing assault rifles at my head and shattering Carol's
left arm so severely that it required trauma surgery.
It seems clear that both of these events were attempts to shut down Legal Schnauzer.
But we are still here, and our readership is growing. The thugs have
failed, in the face of devoted, intelligent, and thoughtful readers.
For
your gracious support, we offer our most sincere thanks. And we invite
you to stick around for the next 4 million page views.
On a final note, we reached one other milestone recently. On May 31, 2020, we had 65,199 page views -- a one-day record for the blog. The next day, June1, 2020, we had 59,163 page views -- for a two-day total of 124,362, another record.
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