End Noise
Sunday, February 20, 2005
The Conservative Blogosphere?
According to this op-ed piece in the Guardian (link via buzzmachine), a leading conservative pundit predicts that blogs will help the conservative forces unite and directly communicate with the masses much as they did in the U.S. presidential election.
The author makes it seem like there was a vast army of Republican bloggers out there. Which leads to the question as to whether or not there are more Republican blogs out there than Democratic ones. After all the talk of Swift Boat veterans and Rathergate, its an easy assumption to make that Republicans own the (apologies for use of this word) Blogosphere. I really doubt this is true, however. I think it's really just perception since Republican bloggers stay on message far more than their Democratic peers.
Looking back of the blog scene in the 2004 election, most major conservative blogs had a few relatively clear talking points about their candidate and a few talking points against the opposition. A reader would see over and over again: Bush = security, Iraq war = good, Kerry = hopelessly liberal and Kerry = disloyal Vietnam soldier.
Democratic blogs on the other hand were unfocused on their attacks. They attacked Bush's Iraqi war record, his abortion stance, his environmental stance, the torturing of Iraqi prisoners, etc, etc. The common thread on these sites was that they do not like Bush. They were unable to focus on key issues, which made it seem like they lacked cohesion.
By keeping their attacks simple and focused on limited talking points, Republican blogs gave the appearance of solidarity, strength and numbers.
The author makes it seem like there was a vast army of Republican bloggers out there. Which leads to the question as to whether or not there are more Republican blogs out there than Democratic ones. After all the talk of Swift Boat veterans and Rathergate, its an easy assumption to make that Republicans own the (apologies for use of this word) Blogosphere. I really doubt this is true, however. I think it's really just perception since Republican bloggers stay on message far more than their Democratic peers.
Looking back of the blog scene in the 2004 election, most major conservative blogs had a few relatively clear talking points about their candidate and a few talking points against the opposition. A reader would see over and over again: Bush = security, Iraq war = good, Kerry = hopelessly liberal and Kerry = disloyal Vietnam soldier.
Democratic blogs on the other hand were unfocused on their attacks. They attacked Bush's Iraqi war record, his abortion stance, his environmental stance, the torturing of Iraqi prisoners, etc, etc. The common thread on these sites was that they do not like Bush. They were unable to focus on key issues, which made it seem like they lacked cohesion.
By keeping their attacks simple and focused on limited talking points, Republican blogs gave the appearance of solidarity, strength and numbers.
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