Gadflies

They tended to be the sort of persistently-involved residents newspapermen often refer to as "gadflies" - deeply, obsessively concerned about issues large and infinitesimal in the communities where they lived. ❋ Unknown (2010)

What are so-called gadflies like Olbermann and Moyers afraid of? ❋ Unknown (2008)

This link is sort of off-topic but really not, as it's yet another case (as in the present one) of the media doing their level best to shout down "the critics" -- the nattering nabobs of negativism -- and then, years later, admitting that the "gadflies" were right all along, and that what looked like a scam, walked like a scam, and quacked like a scam was -- quelle surprise! ❋ Unknown (2009)

I take issue with the Strib calling them "gadflies" (defined as those who annoy especially by persistent criticism). ❋ Unknown (2009)

“[ 'Militant' bloggers are] bitter, carping gadflies who, as they stare into their computer screens and contemplate their dreary day jobs, let their resentment and sense of personal failure take shape as vicious attacks on the established critical media.” ❋ Unknown (2009)

So far, most of the energy from gadflies like Williams has been devoted to the Walmart supply chain. ❋ Unknown (2011)

Like Rodi, I believe Austen deserves to join the grand pantheon of gadflies: Voltaire and Swift, Twain and Mencken. ❋ Lev Raphael (2011)

As King said, "We must see the need for nonviolent gadflies to create the kind of tension in society that will help men rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood." ❋ John W. Whitehead (2010)

Both federal and provincial commissions are suffering blowback from their unsuccessful attempts to muzzle media gadflies Mark Steyn and Ezra Levant. ❋ Unknown (2009)

Even though broadcasters already compile most of the data the proposal would require posting online, they are fighting the plan heatedly, claiming that it would be burdensome and expensive and chiefly of interest to outside gadflies, not to the local populations they purport to serve. ❋ Edward Wasserman (2012)

But the image that presents itself is of bitter, carping gadflies who, as they stare into their computer screens and contemplate their dreary day jobs, let their resentment and sense of personal failure take shape as vicious attacks on the established critical media. ❋ Unknown (2009)

One need look no further than The Daily Show piece to see the clips that started it all — conservative gadflies calling for people to ‘tea bag the white house’. ❋ Unknown (2010)

So, for instance, Jesse Walker suggests that “gadflies” — the folks who make it a personal mission to show up at board of ed hearings and town council meetings — will fill the lacuna in local coverage left by dwindling reportorial staffs. ❋ Unknown (2009)

Via Veneto, principal setting for the actual "La Dolce Vita" 1960, was in Fellini's day a café-lined thoroughfare whose luxury hotels drew Hollywood stars, Arab princes, society gadflies and the paparazzi who clung to them like ivy. ❋ Lee Marshall (2011)

They're gadflies on the lazy horse, an image that comes to us courtesy of Socrates, who was mild-mannered enough but insisted upon asking annoying questions. ❋ Unknown (2009)