Rathergate anniversary - 59 days and counting - Belmont Club and IMAO

Click here to read my explanation of the Rathergate countdown and its significance:

Rathergate (and the long term significance of Rathergate) deserve numerous posts. Over the next three months I hope to focus on Rathergate and the new media in an effort to foster greater appreciation of how far we have come and where we are going next. I hope also to generate sufficient buzz to insure that this event will not be ignored or lost in a sea of the MSM/DNC's usual white noise.

A couple of blogosphere milestones occurred over the past weekend. IMAO reached its third anniversary and Belmont Club stopped being anonymous.

Both of these blogs predate Rathergate, but both enjoyed big jumps in viewership during September 2004 (check their "site meters"). The question remains, is the viewership rise attributable to the general explosion of blogging following Rathergate or due to general interest in the election? The answer is yes. In fact, both the election and Rathergate contributed to the blog explosion in the fall of 2004. The election heightened public awareness of political issues, while Rathergate focused that public awareness onto one scandal that bloggers were in a unique position to address. Only those two blogs can answer the question about their own traffic with greater certainty.