Instapundit
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Instapundit is a U.S. political weblog produced by Glenn Reynolds, a law professor at the University of Tennessee. It is one of the most widely-read blogs in the world.
It is sometimes considered a War Blog because of its frequent sympathetic coverage of America's war on terrorism and war in Iraq. Other common topics are technology (such as nanotechnology, space exploration, and digital photography), individual liberty, domestic politics, the media, and the blogosphere as a social phenomenon. Most of the content consists of links to other sites, often with brief comments. Reynolds encourages readers to explore the wider blogosphere and to read in full articles and posts that he links to.
The blog, started in August 2001, began as an experiment and a part of Reynolds' class on internet law. Because of his wide-ranging authority and influence in the blogosphere, Reynolds is sometimes called the BlogFather.
He has stated on his blog that he is a libertarian and thus often displays a libertarian slant which tends to favor free markets and to distrust bureaucratic action in both economic and personal affairs. The European Union, United Nations, and "Big Media" are all frequent targets of negative remarks or links. Critics charge that the site has become increasingly partisan, with only positive developments in Iraq being linked to while negative developments are ignored, and with a general tendency to provide positive coverage of Republicans and negative coverage of Democrats, although Reynolds supports such Democrat platforms as civil unions, abortion rights, and stem cell research. Critics also suggest that Reynolds shows signs of blogosphere triumphalism.
Because of its popularity, an Instapundit link to another site can cause the traffic of that site to spike. Such an increase is often referred to as an "instalanche" (http://www.samizdata.net/blog/glossary_archives/002000.html), an Instapundit avalanche. (See the Slashdot effect for a similar phenomenon.)
Blogs inspired by Instapundit
Note: Instapundit's fame has led to the common adoption of the suffix "-pundit" in blog titles.
- CalPundit
- Itsapundit (http://www.itsapundit.com)
- Isntapundit
- IsraPundit
- Publius Pundit
- Punditish (http://www.punditish.com)
External links
- Instapundit (http://www.instapundit.com/)
- blogs inspired by Instapundit (http://jeffwolfe.com/instapundit-inspired.html)