Blogs & Politics

In the article, “Blogs: New Medium, Old Politics,” CBS Chief Political Writer, David Paul Kuhn, discusses the role of blogs in the recently contentious election between former Democratic Senator Tom Daschle and the newly elected Republican Senator John Thune. Kuhn highlights the successful strategy of the Thune campaign to use the Internet, and more specifically blogs, to galvanize support for their candidate and weaken the support of former Senator Tom Daschle. As pointed out by Kuhn, the Thune campaign, in accordance with current campaign finance regulations, was able to pay individuals to create and maintain blogs without a disclaimer noting that the authors of the blogs had in fact received money from the Thune campaign. While this may be alarming, it is legal. In addition to discussing the Daschle and Thune race, Kuhn also predicts that in the 2006 and 2008 elections, blogging will become an instrumental vehicle in successfully gathering and weakening support for any given candidate.
After reading Kuhn’s article I decided to search for political blogs on the Internet. Of particular interest was a Political Blogs Directory. The directory listed a wide range of subject headings related to politics. While viewing several of the blogs in each heading I found myself seriously questioning the validity and reliability of the political blogs. While I am sure that some are legitimate blogs, many appear to be personal opinions and rants. As a future librarian I believe that it is the role of librarians to educate users on how to critically analyze blogs to determine whether or not the information is credible and reliable. Moreover, if blogs are to become a major source of information sharing, as predicted by Kuhn, then the role of librarians to educate users is absolutely essential!