Elana Levin of the Drum Major Institute, a progressive think tank based in New York, has a nice round-up of the “Year in the Blogosphere” from the liberal side of the aisle. In her view, blogs played a key role in several political developments:
-the shake-up inside organized labor (Unite to Win and Edwize)
-the shaky justification for the invasion of Iraq (DowningStreetmemo.com and DailyKos)
-the Paul Hackett surge in an Ohio by-election (Grow Ohio and Swing State Project)
-the Judy Miller mess (I#039d give Arianna Huffington credit for really dogging this story)
-the collapse of Bush#039s Social Security privatization plan (TalkingPointsmemo.com)
I went hunting for a parallel review of the year in the blogosphere from the conservative side, and found this transcript of a recent radio chat between Hugh Hewitt and Glenn Reynolds. Among their highlights:
-the take-down of CNN#039s Eason Jordan
-the birth of Pajamas Media
-a brouhaha over the Washington Post#039s reporting about Bill Roggio, a blogger who traveled to Iraq and got himself embedded by the US military
I#039m sure there are more examples out there from both sides. One I#039d mention, that PDF played a tiny role in, was the Online Coalition of political bloggers that organized to keep the FEC from needlessly imposing regulations on online free speech. Daniel Rubin, the Philadelphia Inquirer#039s blogger, has a nice non-partisan review of the year here.
How else did technology impact politics this year? Feel free to add your comments…