The Yearly Kos convention

How long will it be before our political candidates actively woo the UK’s leading political bloggers for favourable coverage? How many of them will be the centre of a sensational weblog revelation in the run up to the next general election?

Have they been keeping a close watch on the USA’s wanna-be Democratic candidates who have actively been courting bloggers at the now famous Yearly Kos convention? Despite all their parties with chocolate fountains and Elvis impersonators, the bloggers have firmly said they are not yet ready to throw their weight behind any candidate for 2008. The candidates know their future success could dependon high profile blog support.

The influential Daily Kos web log is written by a liberal community of commentators and attracts an audience of 20 million people a month, seriously rivalling national newspapers in the US for readership.

It caught my eye a week ago and the event has attracted intense media coverage in the UK too. Today’s Times reminds us of the impact bloggers have had on USA politics. Be warned, it could happen here too:

• Bloggers revealed that a CBS news story questioning President Bush’s military record was based on forced documents forcing Dan Rather, the anchorman, to resign.
• Senator Trent Lott resigned in 2002 after his comments apparently supporting racial segreation appeared on blogs.
• Bloggers were given press passes to the Republican and Democrat convention for the first time in 2004.
• Eason Jordan, a CNN executive, resigned after bloggers criticised him for claiming that the US was deliberately killing journalists in Iraq.
• When Neil French, a British advertising executive, said at a private dinner in Toronto that women did not deserve to reach the top of his industry, he was revealed by a blogger.

We certainly have the same influence here. Iain and Guido are often breaking news stories. And fortunately, Tory bloggers are the most active and passionate, long may it continue. I think it may be worth attending next year’s Daily Kos conference to see what we can learn.