Aw, crap.

Posted June 2, 2007 6:34 PM by Jon Hansen

This is sad news.

Posted June 2, 2007 7:00 PM by Fragano Ledgister

Steve worked for me on a Crossover Technologies project a little over ten years ago. I enjoyed him then, and was delighted to see him skyrocket into fame if not fortune with The News Blog.

I miss him.

Posted June 2, 2007 7:08 PM by Debbie

Me, too. I've been reading Steve Gilliard since his netslaves days. He would take apart S-1s issued by dot-com IPOs. I'm ashamed to admit that I assumed him to be white in those days: who else would do close readings of financial documents? Fierce intelligence, tight prose; he will be missed.

Posted June 2, 2007 7:15 PM by jim

Thoughts and prayers, Steve, and Jen, and Steve's family. May the circle be unbroken.

Posted June 2, 2007 7:20 PM by Lizzy L

I have only heard of him, but I have heard of him a lot. Steve Gilliard is one of the names that comes up when people talk about the good bloggers, the ones that bring important things to light and report sharply and honestly.

I am very sorry.

Posted June 2, 2007 9:56 PM by Nenya

It hurts.

I expected it, but it hurts.

Posted June 2, 2007 11:10 PM by Terry Karney

Wikipedia's article on Steve is on the "considered for deletion" list.

Posted June 3, 2007 8:04 AM by Jon Meltzer

My condolences to all who knew him personally. I feel an astonishing since of loss without having been anything but an avid reader of his blog.

Posted June 3, 2007 8:10 AM by Elaine

I'm very sorry to hear this news. He was a passionate and intelligent man.

Posted June 3, 2007 11:42 AM by Iain Coleman

I can't quite spend all my time reading blogs and LJs (even these days), so while I'd heard Steve's name, I'd never read his blog.

However, this morning Leslie Turek republished one of Steve's essays, A Fighting Liberal. I think I had read that somewhere, because I remember agreeing with almost every word of the essay, and I remember how pissed-off it made me. He was a terrific writer, and I'm sorry I wasn't more familiar with his work when he was alive. At least his words live on.

Posted June 3, 2007 12:07 PM by Laurie D. T. Mann

#8 don't worry too much about this deletion debate; consensus is running almost 9-1 for keeping the article and the original deletion nominator has already been chided for starting this debate *now*.

As for Steve himself, I've been missing him a lot since he went into hospital and had to stop blogging, as no matter how much we sometimes disagreed he was one of the good guys: funny, erudite, passionate and with a knack of nurturing one of the most engaging comment gangs in existence, on a par with the gang here at ML.

Posted June 3, 2007 6:07 PM by Martin Wisse

Very sad news. I think my reaction to the News Blog may be typical - I used to read it, really enjoy a lot of articles, love the fighting tone, get into the take-no-prisoners viewpoint, then I'd read something that really pissed me off and stop reading it. Grr! What an idiot! Etc! But then I'd be browsing someone's blogroll for something else to read and hey, there's a link to Steve Gilliard, well I wonder what he has to say...

Posted June 3, 2007 8:38 PM by Jacob Davies

I hate diabetes. It's taken too many good people away, far too young.

Posted June 4, 2007 12:43 AM by LauraJMixon

I came to reading him late, and I am still sorry as I can be.

Posted June 4, 2007 1:43 AM by Scorpio

What everybody said. Especially Laura.

Posted June 4, 2007 1:56 AM by elise

As far as I know from reading what Jen had to say, he wasn't diabetic. The kidney problems were a complication of the original heart valve surgery.

Never met the man, admired him, don't want to see false info disseminated. If someone closer to the situation can confirm or negate what I'm saying, I will happily defer to them.

Posted June 4, 2007 7:41 AM by Chris Quinones

I have to say that I'd never heard of him until this post. Having read the "Fighting Liberal" essay I see that I missed out on something good.

Posted June 4, 2007 12:35 PM by Chris Gerrib

The New York Times has an article on his passing.

Steven Gilliard Jr., 42, Dies; Founder of Liberal Political Blog

Posted June 6, 2007 2:54 AM by Tania

Here's a blog-safe link to the NYTimes obit that doesn't require a login and won't expire (from their RSS feed):

Steven Gilliard Jr., 42, Dies; Founder of Liberal Political Blog

Posted June 6, 2007 6:50 AM by Richard Parker

horribly amazing how devastated the NewsBlog family is, although most of us have never met Steve, some folks were keeping things up and running against his return...thank you for posting this...

Posted June 6, 2007 10:35 AM by Terri in Tokyo

Brittney Gilbert lost her blogging job after she quoted another blogger who criticized Steve Gilliard in a socially questionable way. Her mistake apparently was not noting that she didn't share blogger #2's views.

Blogger leaves WRKN in wake of racial slur controversy
No Silence Here
I Guess This Is Goodbye, By Brittney

Posted June 7, 2007 1:18 PM by Earl Cooley III