HW 17B: Information vs. Gossip

After reading “Blogging the Presidency: An Interview with Markos Moulitsas Zuniga” (Kline and Burstein 41-48) and “Sex, Lies, and Political Scrapes: An Interview with Ana Marie Cox” (Kline and Burstein 56-62), I’ve concluded that Daily Kos would be more likely to influence the way I’d vote in the upcoming election. Zuniga’s blog covers underground political dirt, injustices, and other very important political matters. This blog is much more statistical and factual compared to Cox’s Wonkette, which is basically just a political gossip blog. Although somewhat important, Wonkette’s topics just don’t dig quite deep enough for me to form an opinion on a politician. Sure, I can learn about their sexual orientation and who they’ve been seen with lately; however, I’m not able to judge whether the candidate or politician is working up to the standards that his job requires, which is the most important value for a politician to possess. I also found it very interesting that Zuniga’s blog has, “forced the resignation of Senator Trent Lott, exposed the fraudulent documents at the heart of a CBS 60 Minutes story on President Bush’s National Guard career, contributed ideas and slogans to both candidates’ campaign speeches, and mobilized millions of party activists to raise money and get people to the polls.” This quote shows the importance of Zuniga’s political blog as another way of getting information and news that needs to be informed out to the public.