Last night, we passed the 50,000,000 mark in views on the blog. I would never have imagined that this little blog (started in a beach house on a lark) could have gone to this size. It is a great testament to our loyal readers and the continued interest in a site for civil and reasoned discussion of the legal, political, and social issues of our times.
We are continuing to experience a surge in viewers. 2020 was a record year in terms of traffic and 2021 is continuing to surpass the prior year by a good measure. The blog continues to grow with new regular commenters and a growing international readership. Again, we thank our loyal readers who return every day to discuss contemporary legal, political, and occasionally bizarre stories. We have used these moments to give thanks for our many regular readers around the world and give you an idea of the current profile of readers on the blog. We continue to rank with the top legal blogs in the world. As always, I want to offer special thanks for Darren Smith who has continued to help manage the blog and help out folks who encounter posting problems. I also want to thank our regular readers who email me to flag my signature typos or any violations of the civility or copyright policies on the blog.
This blog was created well over a decade ago during a family vacation to North Carolina. While at a rental beach house, I was on the telephone with my editor at USA Today who was urging me again to join other columnists on their blog. I was entirely unfamiliar with blogs and resisted. (The same resistance that I am now showing to those encouraging me to do a podcast). As my family can attest, I am one of the most habit-bound, tech-challenged creatures on the planet. Joining us at the beach that year were my wife’s family who were already considerable figures on the Internet with great success in the area in politics, academic, and business. When I got off the call, they called me into the living room and presented me with my new blog, which they had registered and designed during the course of my telephone call. Res Ipsa was born.
From that day, the blog seemed to take deep roots and grow steadily until it was one of the most visited legal blogs and our growth rate continued to increase steadily through the years. I hear regularly from reporters, members of Congress, judges and others who follow the blog and it gives me a great sense of pride in the heterogeneous makeup of our virtual community.
Each day I select a couple of stories that I thought might be interesting to our community. While the blog has a well-known free speech focus, we are not limited in our subjects and routinely explore new developments in science, politics, the environment, and other fields. That includes everything from the latest NASA images to simply bizarre stories that pop up from time to time. It is an idiosyncratic collection that reflects a host (and a group of readers) with eclectic interests. One of the greatest surprises with the blog was to learn that there were other people out there with quirky interests and wandering minds.
So here is our current profile:
As of this morning, we have over 19,798 posts and well over 1,000,000 comments. With the meltdown at Twitter, we saw a notable drop in Twitter subscribers as thousands of people have boycotted the company over its censorship policies. Nevertheless, we are gradually picking up Twitter subscribers again. We stand at over 207,000 Twitter followers and 5,208 people who signed up for alerts by emails.
In the last 90 days, our ten biggest international sources for readers came from:
1. United States
2. Canada
3. United Kingdom
4. Australia
5. Germany
6. Netherlands
7. France
8. Israel
9. New Zealand
10. Japan
The top five posted in terms of readership in the last 90 days are:
2. Project Veritas Wins Victory Against New York Times In Defamation Action
3. Prosecutors Ask Jurors To Dismiss George Floyd Autopsy Findings
5.Is Eric Swalwell The Answer To Trump’s Prayers?
Thank you to all of our regular commentators. We remain an extraordinarily broad and diverse body of commenters from different parts of the world and different political and social backgrounds. Thanks again.
Enjoyable, informed, intelligent and well written blog!! Thank you
I would love to be your proofreader. I do enjoy your column.
My guilty pleasure used to be a bubble bath with People Magazine. But now? It is reading this blog! My current faves are the comments by John Say and Benjamin the surfer dude. So. much. fun.
Thank you Jonathan Turley for this playground!
Congratulations – keep up the good fight
Congratulations Professor Turley!
Yay for Prof. Turley and for Freedom of Speech!
Congratulations!
I follow JT on Twitter. But I like to stop back and see some folks here. Hope all is well w/ y’all. I now live in the Twin Cities. We had a trial recently if you’ve not heard!
Hi NickS! I know you are glad that your city was not burned down!
Good to hear from you!
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Squeek, Always love your unabashed honesty. You are a force of nature.
We’re still hostage to the Duante Wright crowd. The Twin Cities are still Thunderdome. Baby Mayor Frey is clueless as is our guv Walz. Minneapolis is under policed and cops are quitting en masse.
Squeek, I’m also “anonymous…forgot to enter my info.
Squeek, Always love our encounters. We are still hostage to the Duante Wright crowd.
“It is a great testament to our loyal readers . . .”
And primarily to your indefatigable efforts (and Darren’s).
John Stuart Mills in “On Liberty” in 1859 explains that “the source of everything respectable in man either as an intellectual or as a moral being” is that we are “capable of rectifying…mistakes, by discussion and experience.” Thus those who censor opinions commit “a peculiar evil” by “robbing the human race” of the path to truth. While Mill’s case for free speech is not built upon a foundation of natural rights, it is based upon the proposition that free and unhindered discussion corrects our errors and does so to the long term benefit of humanity. This allows us not only to improve our own lives but those of our future descendants who will also benefit from our discoveries. Professor Turly, your blog and commentary represents one of the few intellectually honest places on the web to experience the freedom of speech and right to a contrary opinion that is being lost in ‘woke America’. I am not a Democrat, but would never miss your daily thoughts on the important issues of today and the fight against presentism.
Congratulations, Professor!
Congrats JT.
The Truth will always survive
Finding this blog has given me something to look forward to every day. Professor you deserve all 50,000,000 views and more and I hope it continues growing day by day. I agree with Squeeky above, lets all hope that the woke crowd doesn’t figure out a way to silence the nation’s number one FREEDOM OF SPEECH advocate!
Please don’t diminish your emphasis on free speech issues even as other topics demand your attention. If we lose this one we lose it all.
Congratulations!
And a WARNING!
I hope whoever helps the Professor has all the files here backed up, and also has a Plan B and Plan C to continue operations on an alternative website. Because when Lies and Falsehoods and Propaganda rule the day, the Man Who Tells The Truth is a danger. One day, if not already, The Outrage Mob will try to shut this place down.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
This Blog is my Morning Wake Up!
It is consumed along with my first cup of coffee….step one and two to my daily awakening.
Once you separate the wheat from the chaff….the Blog is an excellent source of information and prompts serious thought about issues.
Shame some fail to appreciate Professor Turley’s contributions that facilitate an intellectual debate both by his comments and analysis of issues and providing this Blog for responses.
Thank you Professor Turley!
Congratulations upon hitting that amazing number of posts on your Blog.
Thank you, Professor Turley, for your dedication to civil liberties and this blog!
Thank you, Darren, for your posts and for being a super WordPress Whisperer!