The 7 Blogs Studied
- Instapundit is written by Glenn Reynolds, a law professor at the University of Tennessee. It leans to the right and is very, very popular; it is the second most popular blog, receiving around 173,000 visits a day. Most of the commentary is on politics, but he also blogs a bit about law, technology, and culture. It has been featured on CNN and in the Wall Street Journal. Reynolds will occasionally do pieces in more traditional formats, such as an op-ed in The Guardian (UK).
- Little Green Footballs is a conservative blog and takes a neoconservative view on foreign-policy issues. It seems particularly interested in the Middle East. It usually makes the top 10 list of the most popular blogs. The site is run by two brothers, Charles and Michael Johnson, who are based on the West Coast.
- Power Line is run by three lawyers, John Hinderaker, Scott Johnson and Paul Mirengoff (Hinderaker and Johnson are based in Minnesota and Mirengoff in D.C.). It is perhaps most famous for its role in the Dan Rather memogate fiasco at CBS in September 2004. Time Magazine named it the Blog of the Year in 2004. It is usually a top-ten most popular blog, too.
- Talking Points Memo is thework of Joshua Micah Marshall, a liberal blogger and a contributing writer for Washington Monthly and a columnist for The Hill. He holds a Ph.D. in American history, so his writing is generally very sophisticated, but accessible to a mainstream audience. According to AlterNet, the syndication service of the alternative press, Talking Points receives more than 500,000 monthly visitors.
- Eschaton is one of the most popular liberal political blogs. Its style is a tad different from the others. It tends to use a lot of links, with less original commentary. Eschaton is written by Atrios, the pseudonym of Duncan Black, a 32-year-old “recovering” economist living in Philadelphia. The blog has been online since April, 2002, and gets an average of over 100,000 visits a day.
- Daily Kos is the most popular liberal blog on the net, consistently ranked in the top five in visitors. It is based in Berkeley , Cal. , and was started by Markos Moulitsas Zúniga , a former soldier and a graduate of Boston University Law School . It is thoroughly steeped in politics without a particular interest (such as economics or foreign policy). It takes the Democratic side on every issue — or at least the anti-Republican side — and regularly gets 600,000 to 700,000 visits a day.
- Crooks and Liars is a video blog, or vlog, run by John Amato, a professional saxophone and flute player who has performed with a variety of recording artists. The blog features video clips from news stories and often includes comments from other blogs about the clips. The site leans to the left, though it isn’t above criticizing Democrats or liberals on occasion. Amato sometimes contributes to Arianna Huffington’s blog. Crooks and Liars averages about 110,000 visits a day.