A Brief Overview of Daily Kos

Daily Kos, a so-called “diarist” blog, has held a dominant position in the blogosphere since its inception seven years ago. The site started with netroots activists whose mission was based on supporting and influencing the Democratic Party. Kos is often cited in the mainstream media (a favorite of Fox News), has broken some important stories, but also has taken flak for some explosive and ultimately baseless claims from unvetted diarists such as the “Babygate” accusation that Sarah Palin had lied about her 4-month-old baby. As a liberal bastion promising “political analysis and other daily rants on the state of the nation,” it acts as a foil to conservative attack blogs like RedState. (http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2008/10/how-political-diarists-power-redstate-daily-kos295.html)

Markos “Kos” Moulitsas Zuniga founded Daily Kos in May 2002, during “those dark days when an oppressive and war-crazed administration suppressed all dissent as unpatriotic and treasonous.” A veteran, Moulitsas explained that he “was offended that the freedoms he pledged his life for were so carelessly being tossed aside by the reckless and destructive Republican administration.” Today the site boasts traffic of two to four million visitors every day, more than 100,000 registered users, and over 20 million daily page views. (http://www.dailykos.com/special/about2)

Daily Kos has fairly recently partnered with Research 2000 to conduct periodic independent polling that is given prominent placing. Also on the main page is paid advertising, often from political advocacy groups. Though Daily Kos frames itself as a grassroots community, it relies on click-through ad revenue.(http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/article_details.php?id=10398)

That Daily Kos remains influential within the Democratic party blog is indisputable: politicians like Barack Obama and former President Jimmy Carter have posted diary entries on the site, and its members hold an annual Netroots Nation convention (formerly YearlyKos) that attracts prominent Democrats. DailyKos was an early mobilizing force behind President Obama’s 2008 campaign, and some alleged overenthusiastic in sniping at Hillary Clinton.

Henry Farrell, "Bloggers and Parties: Can the Netroots Reshape American Democracy?" Boston Review (September/October 2006).