Digby (blogger)

{{Short description|American political blogger}}

{{use mdy dates |date=June 2022}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Heather "Digby" Parton

| birth_name = Heather Parton

| alma_mater = San Jose State University

| occupation = Blogger, journalist

}}

Digby is the short name of American political blogger Heather Digby Parton from Santa Monica, California who founded the blog Hullabaloo.{{Cite web|last1=Berry|first1=Jeffrey M.|last2=Sobieraj|first2=Sarah|title=Are Americans Addicted to Outrage?|url=https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/01/angry-politics-americans-addicted-101735|access-date=2021-04-14|website=POLITICO Magazine|date=January 3, 2014 |language=en}} She has been called one of the "leading and most admired commentators" of the liberal/progressive blogosphere.{{cite news |first=Glenn |last=Greenwald |author-link=Glenn Greenwald |date=June 20, 2007 |title=Fringe liberal bloggers |url=https://www.salon.com/2007/06/20/liberalism/ |work=Salon.com |accessdate=December 22, 2017}}

Digby began as a commenter on the blogs of Bartcop and Atrios and launched her own blog on January 1, 2003,{{cite book |first=Eric |last=Boehlert |author-link=Eric Boehlert |title=Bloggers on the Bus: How the Internet Changed Politics and the Press |publisher=Free Press |location=New York |year=2009 |isbn=978-1-4165-6010-4 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/bloggersonbushow00boeh }}{{Page needed|date=November 2010}} calling it Hullabaloo "because one function of blogs is to cause a ruckus"{{cite news |first=Jesse |last=Kornbluth |url=http://www.latimes.com/style/la-mag-oct052008-gadfly-story.html |title=The Gadfly: What Digby Says: The darling of the progressive blogosphere is still yelling at the TV |work=Los Angeles Times |date=October 5, 2008 |accessdate=December 22, 2017}} and decorating it with a picture of a screaming Howard Beale from the film Network. She has been joined by other bloggers on Hullabaloo, including composer Richard Einhorn, who blogs under the name "Tristero".

Digby graduated from Lathrop High School in Fairbanks, Alaska. She studied theater at San Jose State University (then known as San Jose State College) and worked on the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System and for a number of film companies, including Island Pictures, PolyGram, and Artisan Entertainment.

Digby won the 2005 Koufax award for blog writing and accepted the Paul Wellstone Award on behalf of the progressive blogosphere from the Campaign for America's Future (CAF) at their "Take Back America" conference.{{cite news |first=Joan |last=Walsh |author-link=Joan Walsh |url=http://www.salon.com/2007/06/20/digby_3/ |title=The hullabaloo over Digby |work=Salon.com |date=June 20, 2007 |accessdate=May 31, 2010}} Digby had initially kept her identity secret and it was widely assumed that Digby was male until she made an appearance at the 2007 CAF conference to accept the award. Digby has since written regularly at the online tabloid{{Cite web|url=http://www.journalismjobs.com/interview_talbot.cfm|title=Interview with Salon.com's David Talbot -- June 2001|date=August 4, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090804064050/http://www.journalismjobs.com/interview_talbot.cfm |archive-date=August 4, 2009 }} Salon under her given name of Heather Digby Parton.{{cite news |url= http://www.salon.com/writer/heather_digby_parton/ |title=Heather Digby Parton |work=Salon |accessdate=2014-04-16}} She also won the 2014 Hillman Prize for Opinion and Analysis Journalism.{{cite news|title=2014 Hillman Prize for Opinion and Analysis Journalism|url=http://www.hillmanfoundation.org/2014-hillman-prize-opinion-and-analysis-journalism|accessdate=April 24, 2014}}