Blogs

Pat Flannery takes a look at political blogs and their impact:

Unless you're a political junkie or an Internet geek, a pair of political uproars in the blogosphere probably flew under your radar this past spring.

Ben Domenech, a former Bush administration intern who launched the conservative RedState.com, was dumped in late March as a blogger at Washingtonpost.com after liberal rivals unearthed plagiarism in his work, triggering a flurry of Internet commentary, known as a "swarm."

Then late last month, the Los Angeles Times suspended columnist Michael Hiltzik's blog after a conservative critic exposed Hiltzik's practice of using pseudonyms to post provocative comments on other blogs.

The frays are instructive to those unfamiliar with blogging because they signal how and where a growing share of political discourse is taking place these days. It is a more personalized, polarized and contentious dialogue in which the public's business and a broad array of private opinions are blended in an edgy, fast-moving political medium.

It has become part of the political landscape, with Democrat Howard Dean setting the early standard by using blogs to raise money, spread his message and build a grass-roots network in the 2004 presidential race.

What's different now is the ubiquity of blogs. Recent episodes dramatize how swiftly and powerfully they may react, sometimes rivaling mainstream media in their ability to track events and connect the dots in real time, and influencing traditional news coverage. Consider:

• Blogs applied the pressure that led to Trent Lott's 2002 resignation from the U.S. Senate after making what some construed as racist remarks.

• It was a blogger dubbed "Buckhead" who in 2004 exposed forged documents used by CBS News and Dan Rather in stories about President Bush's National Guard service.

• Former Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D., was unseated two years ago after conservative bloggers attacked him and forced the state's largest newspaper to modify its coverage of the race.

• Blogs raised early questions about the Bush administration's handling of the Hurricane Katrina crisis. A study by Loyola University Chicago sociologist Lauren Langman concludes that the blogs forced critical mainstream news coverage that weakened support for the president.

• Last year's U.S. Supreme Court nomination of Harriet Miers was withdrawn after conservative blogs derided her qualifications. Bush took the unprecedented step of holding a conference call with the bloggers in an unsuccessful attempt to quell criticism.

As their numbers and influence grow, it is clear that blogs are not just a national medium.

More than a dozen independent Arizona political blogs now exist along with those of media outlets and campaigns. Readership is minuscule compared with many national blogs, but they sometimes scoop local media and influence their coverage.

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