User Profile for Progressive Bloggers (pbloggers)

Bio: The Progressive Blogosphere is the sprawling network of weblogs and online communities that has transformed politics in the 21st century. By using the Internet to build a nationwide community where ideas, information and analysis can be quickly shared, and by tearing down the virtual walls protecting the political and media establishments from the people, the Progressive Blogosphere has brought more individuals into the political process and channeled “netroots” energy into concrete effects.

Bloggers gave a platform to populist candidates who might otherwise have been dismissed by the political and media establishments, such as Jon Tester, Ned Lamont, Jerry McNerney, Deval Patrick and Carol Shea-Porter. Blogs helped debunk the conservative misinformation that Social Security’s finances were in crisis, and successfully pressed politicians to resist privatization. Pressure on the media generated from blogs raised awareness of Sen. Trent Lott's segregationist remarks, and prevented scandals like PlameGate and the Prosecutor Purge from being relegated to the back pages and forgotten by the punditocracy. Perhaps most importantly, without blogs, voters would never have heard of “Macaca.”

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