Bloggers provide focus, attention, nuance in political coverage

[rumpel]

sorry if this is a dupe

Capitol Weekly

By Dave Dayen

Last week, a group of progressive bloggers and activists launched www.governorphil.com, a Web site dedicated to covering the California governor's race and promoting challenger Phil Angelides against incumbent Arnold Schwarzenegger (full disclosure: I am a contributor to this effort). This is the latest of what has become an increasing trend in how politics are covered online: the rise of local blogospheres.

Local bloggers were very vocal in Democratic U.S. Senate primaries in Montana, Virginia, and Connecticut this year, resulting in victories for candidates like Jon Tester, James Webb and Ned Lamont. Measuring the blogopsheric impact on these races is an inexact science; progressive organizations like MoveOn.org and Democracy for America, as well as longtime state activists, had a strong presence as well. Then again, nobody really holds newspaper editorial boards to account for their track record in endorsing candidates, so I don't know how germane it is to do the same with the Net roots.


snip

The best blogs provide context to the news, highlight stories that are under-covered or totally uncovered, drill down into specific analyses of issues and public policy, and even do some of their own original reporting. For example, The California Courage Campaign, in association with the national site MyDD.com, produced a post-election poll about the Francine Busby/Brian Bilbray special election for the 50th Congressional District of the U.S. House that yielded some surprising results, which differed from the traditional narratives used to understand that race. According to the poll, it was not the lack of motivated Democrats, but the low turnout of independent voters that doomed Busby in that race. And more of those polled were supportive of progressive immigration ideas over the hard-line approach, completely contradicting the punditocracy's notion that Bilbray's hard-line stance on immigration decided the race in the heavily Republican district.

http://www.capitolweekly.net/opinion/article.html?article_id=920