Greg Mitchell has this
preview of a Michael Crowley piece for the Sunday NYTimes:
In an argument sure to be challenged in certain sectors of the blogosphere, a story in The New York Times magazine coming up this Sunday declares that conservative blogs continue to best liberal blogs in political and electoral influence.
The title of the piece by Michael Crowley in the magazine's 5th Annual Year in Ideas cover package says it all: "Conservative Blogs Are More Effective."
. . . In fact, Crowley admits that his argument for conservative blog supremacy may seem "counterintuitive," noting the Howard Dean phenomenon in early 2004 and heavy Web traffic numbers for liberal blogs such as DailyKos. . . . But he explains that "Democrats say there's a key difference between liberals and conservatives online. Liberals use the Web to air ideas and vent grievances with one another, often ripping into Democratic leaders....Conservatives, by contrast, skillfully use the Web to provide maximum benefit for their issues and candidates."
Well if you define effective as being a part of the Mighty Wurlitzer, having no respect for the facts and shilling for the Republican Party, Crowley is 100% correct.
Markos no doubt will have some insights on this. For me, I am proud to say we will never be "effective" in the way the Right Blogs are.
Update by kos: Good. Let people think that. People have always been naysayers. Instead of getting riled up about, we'll keep doing what we're doing. And at the end of 2006 we'll be able to take stock of the situation and declare, definitively, that the conservative blogosphere is merely a redundant extension of their noise machine.
Update II: Atrios makes the definitive rebuttal, thus far:
[T]he liberal blogosphere is a much greater value added for our side because we have such a shitty media infrastructure. If all the wingnut blogs disappeared tomorrow it really wouldn't have any impact on the national discourse. Sure they're there and the Right is better at using them but they don't really *need* them. They have plenty of other ways to launder their horseshit.
Again, conservative bloggers are an extension of their frighteningly effective noise machine. We don't have one of those on our side. All we have are our blogs and a handful of radio programs.
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