Blogs as a form of political journalism

In her Democracy Defended: Polibloggers and the Political Press in America, Erica Johnson makes the point that blogs have now become a form of political journalism.

Blogs have increasingly taken on the traditional roles of the press, that being watchdog and gatekeeper.

Political blogs have fulfilled both roles by not only exposing stories those in government would rather not see exposed, but also picking up stories that the mainstream media would ordinarily not pick up themselves. The first major blog triumph, according to Johnson, is Matt Drudge's breaking of the Monica Lewinsky scandal that led to the impeachment by the House of Representatives of President Clinton.

Political blogs also possess the ability to make what would normally be a non-story into a story. One example came in 2004 during the Presidential election, when John Kerry mentioned the fact that Dick Cheney's daughter to call out Cheney for not supporting gay marriage. In 2006, while opposing the confirmations of Justices Roberts and Alito to the Supreme Court, it was pointed out that Kerry had supported the nomination of conservative Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court over ten years earlier. The conservative site instapundit made was able to generate interest in these stories so that they can be used against Kerry.

Political bloggers were legitimized in 2004 when the Democratic and Republican conventions issued press credentials, assuring that these bloggers would sit alongside the mainstream media in reporting on the conventions.

Other scandals, such as the 2002 Trent Lott controversy and the 2004 Dan Rather controversy, are explained here.

All of these scandals have something in common. They are all scandals that might have been swept under the rug and missed by the traditional press had blogs not stepped up as watchdog and gatekeeper. However, a "firestorm" online, may very well lead to more serious attention from the main stream media.

Related article The Role of the Internet in the 2008 Campaign

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