British political blogs: Colorful characters, but not the punch delivered by U.S. blogs

Citing the findings of Pew Internet & American Life Project study Buzz, Blogs, and Beyond: The Internet and the National Discourse in the Fall of 2004, an article on Guardian Unlimited Online offers a contrast between American and British political blogging. According to the article, while American blogs have proven themselves as media watchdogs and have demonstrated their muscle at breaking news, in Britain "there is little heavyweight comment and it is rare to see a blog break a story or substantially move it on."

One popular theory for this is that the British press is already "far more rambunctious" than the "generally staid" newspapers in the U.S., and blogging offers Americans a chance for "heated national conversation among competing viewpoints, whereas [the British] can arouse much the same feelings of empathy or revulsion by reading Richard Littlejohn or Polly Toynbee."

Guardian Unlimited assistant editor Neil McIntosh, who launched the Guardian's blogs, says it's just a matter of time before British bloggers launch a "'Private Eye-style blog.'"