Red Blogs Rising

In a recent article on blogging, the New York Times noted that, "popular political blogs like Wonkette, MyDD and Daily Kos serve as an alternative to traditional news sources…" Indeed they do. But why did Times technology writer Brian Wingfield choose three leftwing blogs to illustrate his point?

"Couldn't they have at least feigned a lack of bias and included one conservative or libertarian blog in their list?" asks Ryan B. Zempl on Townhall's C-log.

Yes, that would have been nice. But there's more at work here than run-of-the-mill political snobbery. Three or four years ago, even the most biased reporter at the Times would have been hard-pressed to think of three left-leaning blogs of sufficient stature to justify naming them in such a context – even for the purpose of indulging the Times' political prejudice. The fact that Wonkette, MyDD and Daily Kos spilled forth so effortlessly from Wingfield's keyboard – and presumably from his brain – surely constitutes a sign of the times.

Less than a year ago, Glenn Reynolds' pro-war, pro-Bush Instapundit weblog consistently topped every blog ranking of note. As recently as September 30, 2002, British blogger James Crabtree could complain in the socialist journal The New Statesman that, "Blogs are becoming the medium of choice for politically attuned members of the digital generation. Like talk radio, they are dominated by the political right. Why has the left ceded this potentially influential medium without a fight?"

Crabtree ended his article with what seemed, at the time, a pathetic cry in the dark to fellow leftists: "Got a computer? Got a view? Get blogging. There is a war to be won." His article evoked only good-natured chortles from the lords of the blogosphere, all of whom seemed to lean right in those halcyon days.

What a difference two and a half years makes! The leftwing Daily Kos has pushed Instapundit from the number-one spot. The new stars of the blogosphere bear names like Eschaton, Wonkette, Political Wire, TalkingPointsMemo, MyDD, Smirking Chimp and Political Animal - servants of the left, every one.

Is the blogosphere's leftward shift merely a mirage of mass-media propaganda? Or does it signal an attitudinal change with authentic roots in the netizenry? Frankly, I haven't a clue. But we'd better find out.