Bloggers on the Bus: How the Internet Changed Politics and the Press
The world of online networking and communication has Exploded in the last ten years. Social networking sites, You Tube, and blogs offer hours of entertainment, but have also become important vehicles for activism. The "netroots," as Eric Boehlert calls this phenomenon, have risen to incredible power, and never has that been dearer than in the 2008 presidential election.\ Bloggers on the Bus traces the major events that rocked the campaign trail and reveals the stories of the online activists...
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Bloggers on the Bus by Eric Boehlert is an insider's look at how blogging and instant access media is changing politics today. Publishers Weekly Starred Review. Award winning journalist Boehlert (Lapdogs: How the Press Rolled Over for Bush) introduces the new generation of political muckrakers who took the 2008 presidential campaign-and old guard, by-the-numbers reporting-by storm. From the banner names of newly minted powerhouse The Huffington Post to the vitriol dished out by established liberal outposts like The Daily Kos, Boehlert presents a Web's-eye-view of the American left's grand reawakening. The netroots, as they became known, "literally kept the lights on during a very dark period for liberals"; prominent blogger Digby puts it more bluntly: "The Internet became available just as American politics turned bat shit crazy." That craziness only accelerated through the presidential campaign, including the polarizing campaign of Hillary Clinton, Obama calling small-town Pennsylvanians "bitter," and the entire shock-and-awry VP candidacy of Sarah Palin. Boehlert also examines the use and misuse of social networking sites like MySpace, and some seismic changes in televised news (including mainstream media's biggest new star, unlikely MSNBC news host Rachel Maddow). Blogger Markos describes his site as "a place for passionate activists, not conflict-averse weenies"; Boehlert illustrates that ethos well in this opinionated, impossible to put down narrative, chronicling with cagey insider detail the failures of copycat reporting and the inspired citizen-journalists picking up the slack. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Introduction ix1 Fox News and "WTF?" 12 "Vote Different" 193 Whose Space? 314 The Accidental Empire 475 DIY Politics 756 The Tweety Effect 917 God Sent Hitler 1058 The Blog War of 2008 1179 "It Was Like a Big Giant Zit That Just Popped All Over the Place" 14310 "The Most Unlikely Instrument of Change" 15911 Obama, the Blogs and Immunity 17912 Still Waiting for the Rightroots Movement 20713 Saradise Lost 22314 The Obama Nation 245Index 267
\ Publishers WeeklyStarred Review. \ Award winning journalist Boehlert (Lapdogs: How the Press Rolled Over for Bush) introduces the new generation of political muckrakers who took the 2008 presidential campaign-and old guard, by-the-numbers reporting-by storm. From the banner names of newly minted powerhouse The Huffington Post to the vitriol dished out by established liberal outposts like The Daily Kos, Boehlert presents a Web's-eye-view of the American left's grand reawakening. The netroots, as they became known, "literally kept the lights on during a very dark period for liberals"; prominent blogger Digby puts it more bluntly: "The Internet became available just as American politics turned bat shit crazy." That craziness only accelerated through the presidential campaign, including the polarizing campaign of Hillary Clinton, Obama calling small-town Pennsylvanians "bitter," and the entire shock-and-awry VP candidacy of Sarah Palin. Boehlert also examines the use and misuse of social networking sites like MySpace, and some seismic changes in televised news (including mainstream media's biggest new star, unlikely MSNBC news host Rachel Maddow). Blogger Markos describes his site as "a place for passionate activists, not conflict-averse weenies"; Boehlert illustrates that ethos well in this opinionated, impossible to put down narrative, chronicling with cagey insider detail the failures of copycat reporting and the inspired citizen-journalists picking up the slack.\ Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.\ \ \
