Year of the Blog

World Magazine's Gene Edward Veith and Lynn Vincent take what may be the best look at blogs' achievements in the past year.

Highlight, featuring the Commish:

What bloggers did with the Swift Boat Veterans and the exposure of the Rathergate forgeries arguably played a role in the reelection of President Bush. Liberal blogs helped launch the candidacy of the anti-war candidate Howard Dean—and raise money for him—which pulled John Kerry to the left, which, in turn, may have also helped reelect President Bush. On election night, blogs leaked the result of early exit polls that heralded a Kerry victory, leading to Democrats' euphoria and Republicans' depression until the actual vote count came in. Mr. Hewitt believes that left-wing bloggers were part of a deliberate disinformation campaign, what he calls "black blog ops," which signals the potential of blogs to be misused. But it was also conservative bloggers on election night who warned their readers not to take those early reports seriously.

Read the whole thing for an excellent summation of an amazing year.

Posted by Mitch at November 24, 2004 02:55 PM | TrackBack