Daniel Glover has done an impressive package of stories about the political impact of blogging over at the National Journal.
The basic premise is that blogs covering politics have evolved from
musings of the pajama-clad set to commentary that’s now having a
serious impact.
In his main story, Glover suggests a link between the failure of President George W. Bush‘s
Social Security reform effort and the bloggers who effectively
influenced public and politicians’ opinions against it. The torpedoing
of Harriet Miers‘ Supreme Court nomination likewise had bloggers playing a role, he writes.
On interesting point that Glover makes is that mainstream media is
beginning to amplify bloggers’ influence. For example, sites like
WashingtonPost.com now add blog-search-engine Technorati links to bloggers’ discussion of Washington Post stories. (See an example on this story; look for the “Who’s Blogging” box.) One blogger calls that a sure-fire way to get his opinion out to the Post‘s online audience — versus lesser odds of getting a letter to the editor published.
Glover also has a list of members of Congress who blog (small, but growing), and he’s posted some raw interviews done for the blogging package.
