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Roberts and the Blogger Swarm

Update: Much longer article with new title and links now available here. The first half of the article is about the mis-information about Edith Clement. Were journalists purposely misled to give them less time to research Roberts before the announcement?

Howard Kurtz has an article today in the Washington Post, Court Nominee In Eye of the Blogger Swarm.

This is the first Supreme Court nomination of the Internet age, meaning that liberal and conservative opinion-mongers are already blanketing cyberspace with arguments, facts, taunts, polemics, gossip and electronic links to raw data, hoping to rally the faithful and influence the mainstream media coverage.

Kurtz writes about a BlogPac call the night of Roberts' nomination with 50 bloggers.

The lightning-quick attacks came after 50 top liberal bloggers held a 45-minute conference call Tuesday night. "On the left, we've always talked about the need to have an echo chamber," says John Aravosis, a Washington lawyer and gay rights activist who writes at Americablog.com.

Kurtz reviews the various positions on Roberts taken by bloggers and notes that not all liberal bloggers are marching in lockstep:

On the Roberts nomination, though, not all left-wing bloggers are marching in lockstep. [Markos]Moulitsas [of Daily Kos]wrote that while Roberts has only two years of judicial experience, "I'm willing to hear the guy out. We're not going to get a Ginsburg, but I'd be happy with an O'Connor-style moderate conservative. For all we know (and for all the religious-right knows), Roberts might be that sort of guy."

Jeralyn Merritt, a Denver defense lawyer who writes the TalkLeft blog, told readers that "it's too soon to start opposing Judge John G. Roberts. Most of us knew nothing about him. . . . I don't think it helps that liberal groups are coming out swinging so soon."

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    Re: Roberts and the Blogger Swarm (none / 0) (#1)
    by The Heretik on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:01:28 PM EST
    Thanks for all the info. More information is starting to come out about the Right White Guy John Roberts. A judge is one thing, a lawyer quiet another. Very curious as to those thirty nine cases argued before the Supreme Court by Roberts as his major credit. More on this at John Roberts in the House of Wax