Rick Heller over at Blogging of the President used Feedster search to track the number of times each candidate got mentioned.*
In the comments on Rick’s post, arguments broke out. Supporters of different candidates swapped accusations. I was sad to see how each side’s conventional wisdom imagined the others in very negative ways.
I was thrilled to realize that Feedster (and other search engines) could kick down the walls that turn each “conventional wisdom” into an ugly echo chamber.
Good news! These are no longer unanswerable questions:
- What’s the ratio of positive-to-negative comments in each blog?
- Which candidate’s blog talks most about substantive issues?
- Which candidate’s supporters talk most about substantive issues?
Knowing such comparisons can be done should motivate all of us to campaign for our own guy in a positive way.
* I blogged about Rick’s research on Feedster’s Fuzzyblog, but I want to talk about some different stuff here.
The propagandist’s purpose is to make one set of people forget that certain other sets of people are human. – Aldous Huxley