Black began his online political life in Salon magazine's Tabletalk messageboards under the pseudonym of Kurt Foster, then began blogging as Atrios, remaining pseudonymous for several years, and even joking that he was actually a high school gym teacher. According to Black, the name "Atrios" is actually a (misspelled) reference to a character named Antrios in the Yasmina Reza play 'Art' who paints the play's key "white painting on white canvas".
Before starting Eschaton, Black wrote (as Atrios) for the webzineMedia Whores Online (now defunct). During the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston, he revealed that he had accepted a job at Media Matters for America and allowed his name and photograph to be published. He later said that as an academic he blogged pseudonymously to avoid attacks like those later unleashed on Timothy Shortell.[2] Atrios' blogging has been characterized as encouraging discourse and public deliberation.[3]
Eschaton
Black's weblog Eschaton generally features short entries on a variety of topics ranging from policy commentary to breaking news and links. Posts are frequent — on the order of ten every day. The majority of posts are authored by Black (as Atrios), but there are occasional guest bloggers. On June 29, 2005, Black described Eschaton as not a blog but an "Online Magazine of News, Commentary, and Editorial."[4] Following a similar announcement from The Talent Show,[5] this was a satirical reaction to Federal Election Commission hearings[6] on the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act. Black had previously expressed frustration[7] that the FEC might not apply the act's "media exemption" to blogs, which he regarded as equivalent to other forms of media including online magazines.
Duncan Black is credited with creating the neologism "Friedman Unit" to refer to The New York Times columnist Tom Friedman's predilection for repeatedly using the next six months as the critical time period for the Iraq War[9] and the term "High Broderism" for an approach to politics characterized by "the worship of bipartisanship for its own sake" as a cover for "the defense of...'the establishment' at all costs".[10]
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