Crossfire, Fahrenheit 9/11 Frequent 2004 Blog Topics

Posted on January 7, 2005

The transcript of comedian Jon Stewart's not-so-funny October debate with CNN Crossfire hosts Tucker Carlson and Paul Begala was the No. 1 blogged news item of 2004 at BlogPulse.com, according to marketing intelligence firm Intelliseek. Bloggers linked to the Crossfire transcript in their online commentaries 1,880 times in 2004, followed by 1,415 references to Slate.com's "Unfairenheit 9/11: The Lies of Michael Moore" and 1,174 citations for the BBC's obituary of radio DJ John Peel.

The data was compiled by Intelliseek's BlogPulse, an automated blog portal that tracks and analyzes more than two million blogs daily. Blogs, short for weblogs, are easily published websites that serve as online diaries, journals, newsletters or sources of opinion, information and expertise. By some estimates, the Internet now hosts 5-8 million blogs.

"Blogs are proving to be powerful resources for sharing news and keeping issues alive in the public's mind," says Pete Blackshaw, Intelliseek's chief marketing officer. "CNN reaped a tremendous amount of awareness by making the Stewart transcript available on its web site."

Bloggers frequently post links to other news stories, blogs or websites in their regular postings, and tallies of those links determined the BlogPulse.com year-end findings. Other top news stories, in order, were Common Dreams' "Evidence Mounts That Vote May Have Been Hacked" (Nov. 6; 966 citations), CBS News' "CBS Names Probe Panel" (Sept. 22; 953) and The Nation's "100 Facts and 1 Opinion: The Non-Arguable Case Against the Bush Administration" (Oct. 30; 783).

In entertainment Intelliseek found that actor Johnny Depp, the Star Wars trilogy DVD and Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 provided much of the entertainment-related discussion in blogs in 2004. Bloggers showed a preference for both mainstream and offbeat entertainment, making Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind the second most-mentioned movie in blog postings and exchanging a quirky collection of online images and audio/video clips throughout the year, including President George Bush's bird-flipping "one-fingered victory salute" (No. 1) and JibJab.com's satirical This Land is Your Land (No. 3) animation.

Other Findings from the BlogPulse.com 2004 Blogosphere Review:

Most blogged-about actors/actresses: Johnny Depp, Brad Pitt, Orlando Bloom, Hilary Duff, Angelina Jolie, Tom Cruise, Lindsay Lohan, Jude Law, Mandy Moore and Tom Hanks.

Top audio files cited: Comedian Eric Idle's "FCC Song;" Bush's description of "tribal sovereignty;" music by the band Hard 'n Phirm; a Nickelback mix; and William Shatner's version of "Common People."

Top video files cited: Bush's "one-fingered victory salute" during his Texas gubernatorial campaign; the "GOP convention in 60 seconds" montage; JibJab.com's "This Land Is Your Land" animation; a film clip proposing a 9/11 Pentagon conspiracy; and a TV ad for a Transformer-dancing Citroen car.

Top movies: Fahrenheit 9/11, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Ying Xiong (Hero), The Day After Tomorrow, Shaun of the Dead, Garden State, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, The Incredibles, Spider-Man 2, and Team America: World Police.

Top products at Amazon.com: Star Wars: Trilogy (DVD), Garden State soundtrack (CD), U2's How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb (CD), Fahrenheit 9/11 (DVD), Firefly - The Complete Series (DVD), and Philips HeartStart Home Automated External Defibrillator.

Top books at amazon.com/bn.com: Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry; The Da Vinci Code; The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Presents America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction; My Life; Eats Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation.

Top people/personalities: President George Bush (637,646 citations); Sen. John Kerry (411,977); movie character Harry Potter (333,418); singer Britney Spears (119,661) and film maker Michael Moore (111,876). Others of note: No. 6 Saddam Hussein (85,311); No. 12 Osama Bin Laden (63,003), No. 39 former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean (23,649 hits) and radio No. 91 DJ Howard Stern (13,236 hits).

Top News Sources: Yahoo! News (205,093 citations); The New York Times (188,596); BBC (161,805), CNN (144,560) and The Washington Post (113,417). Others of note: No. 14 Fox News (34,915), No. 24 CBS News (19,865), and at No. 85, the English-version website of Aljazeera.net (6,834).

Top Blogs: BoingBoing: A Directory of Wonderful Things (23,836 citations); DailyKos political blog (21,530); Instapundit political blog (21,391), The Drudge Report news/political blog (19,220); and Slashdot (18,901).

Top Websites: Hello.com (571,569 citations), Quizilla.com (440,364), Memegen.net (286,362), Amazon.com (255,152) and Go-Quiz.com (217,443). (Many of the top websites are used by bloggers as resources for quizzes, icons or interactive features they post on their blogs).