Blogs & Next U.S. Supreme Court

Blogs seen as powerful new tool in U.S. court fight.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Political groups preparing to battle over the first U.S. Supreme Court nomination in 11 years have a powerful new tool -- Internet blogs -- to spread information quickly and influence decision makers without relying on traditional media.

Web logs likely numbering in the dozens provide a way for the thoughtful and the passionate to publish their views. Politicians are taking notice as they prepare for the first high court nomination fight since the Internet became common in American households.

Which Politicians are taking notice?

"A key part of our strategy is reaching out to the Internet community," said Jim Manley, spokesman for Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada. [...]

Reid and other political leaders now hold conferences with bloggers in the same way they meet with traditional press.

"I think they are instrumental in getting information out and deconstructing spin," said Eric Ueland, chief of staff to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a Tennessee Republican.

"They are much defter and swifter than the mainstream media," he said, adding that blogs are also "very clear in their philosophical and idealogical leanings."

7 percent of the 120 million U.S. adults who use the Internet have created a blog or web-based diary, found in a recent study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project. I am part of the 7 percent who have created a blog.

Carol Darr, director of George Washington University's Institute for politics, democracy and the Internet, said those who read and write blogs aren't "the sad, the mad and the lonely." Rather, research shows they tend to be people able to influence others, she said. [..]

Not all blogs are created equal. Many will become "ideological echo chambers" that people read to reaffirm their beliefs, Clemons said. Others will fuel passions on both the right and the left sides of the political spectrum. A few will rise above the pack and become sources of information and not just an advocacy forum.

I know DailyKos fuels my passion on many issues. This blog has rise and continue to rise above the pack. Blogs will play a role in the next U.S Supreme Court, at least that is my opinion.