From The Times-Herald: Blogs were once credited with providing a podium to those otherwise short in political stature. Now some have been accused of building that podium a bit too tall.
Over the weekend, several blogs beseeched their readers to vote multiple times in online opinion polls regarding anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan.
Both The Reporter and The Times-Herald said that by posting instructions on how to bypass the one-vote-per-person system, the bloggers distorted the results of the polls.
As a result of the blogging frenzy, thereporter.com – which normally receives just 12,000 hits a day – garnered more than 93,000 votes.
While many see the voting hijinks as victimless, others are concerned that the incident highlights the increasing power of blogs to sway politics and the mainstream media.
About Karl-Erik Stromsta
