Accidental Empire: The Rise of the Liberal Blogosphere

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-boehlert/accidental-empire-the-ris_b_205691.html


Eric Boehlert
Senior Fellow at Media Matters for America
Posted: May 20, 2009 09:39 AM

Accidental Empire: The Rise of the Liberal Blogosphere

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And that's really how the progressive blogosphere -- the netroots -- was born. Creative people like Bowers were drawn to it because it represented a much-needed release valve for the pent-up political frustration so many Democrats and liberals had felt through the late 1990s and into the beginning of this decade. For them, blogs represented small-scale places where people could stand up to the conservative onslaught that had fueled Clinton's impeachment, the Florida recount, and the rush to war with Iraq. It was where citizens could at least try to launch a revolutionary, participatory democracy online.

The liberal blogosphere, at least at its inception, represented perhaps the most un-planned, un-thought-through media and political movement in modern America. It really was an accidental empire. Of course, bloggers would use 'empire' sarcastically, since they're quick to downplay their own influence. Plus, they had accumulated enough political disappointments to prove it. But there's no question they've changed politics and the press in a way that no other left-leaning movement had done in decades.

Yet early on, the netroots movement was built with very little coordination and no money. There were no memos', no outlines, no projections and no budgets. No nothing. It literally just happened. (Only later did some coordination begin to surface.)

The list of early blog pioneeers is a long one and I'd be a fool to try to name them for fear of leaving anybody out. But what an unlikely cast of eclectic characters! (Students, housewives, attorneys, professors, musicians, etc.) Most brought with them no experience in politics or journalism. Their career paths were never going to take them to the U.S. Capitol or inside big city newsrooms. And none of them ever dreamt their online essays -- posted in an effort just to keep themselves sane -- would ever represent career options, or that White House candidates would come courting.

Basically, bloggers served as a conduit to the grassroots. Bloggers talked to people who talked to people, and collectively they amassed political power by raising hell together. And in truth, the liberal blogosphere -- the crucial communication arm of the progressive movement that grew into the type of influential outreach platform that the Democratic Party hadn't been able to build despite decades of trying -- was formed on a largely ad-hoc basis and for years was sustained by adrenaline and caffeine.

It really was an accidental empire.

Nobody owns the net.

Don't think they aren't trying.

... sounds like GOP reverse engineering propaganda.

Why can't people accept it for what it is? The marketplace of ideas is dominated by liberal ideas and not Ayn Rand-GOP-authoritarianism.

and I told them they were premature but that we would have great influence soon. I didn't see a huge influence then but I do know, or rather I did last fall. I'm confused about how deaf the WH has gotten of recent.

That's how they took down Clinton. From Drudge Report at 11 PM To Lucianne Goldberg at 5 AM to Townhall.com at 12 PM to Fox News at five.