pajamahadeen
Definition: (noun) Bloggers (writers of personal online journals) who investigate and challenge stories in the mainstream media.
Example: Sally wrote her blog in a nightgown, but she was still a member of the pajamahadeen.
Quote:
“Maybe the Kerry Spot has been a little tough on the Democratic candidate lately. Sure, he’s been through a heck of a rough patch. Sure, the Sauronic Big Eye of CBS is on the verge of being toppled by the Pajamahadeen.”
Pajamahadeen, a word that has been big on the internet in the last few months, was named the "most creative" word of 2004 by the Linguistic Society of America at their annual meeting last week. The term has been used primarily about online critics of a CBS report last fall on President Bush's National Guard Service. After conservative bloggers drew attention to questionable documents used in that story, several people lost their jobs in the scandal that followed.
According to Oliver Kamm at the UK Times Online, the word was inspired when a television executive defended the quality of network’s standards by comparing their professional reporters and fact checkers to “a guy sitting in his living room in his pajamas writing.”
Oddly, the other part of the term appears to come from the Arabic word “mujahadeen,” a kind of Muslim guerrilla fighter. Not surprisingly, number of bloggers have suggested pajama posse as a more “American” sounding alternative.
A. C. Kemp | January 13, 2005
