Blog P.I. is an ongoing series of investigations into, studies about, and commentaries on uses of the Internet in U.S. politics. While the political blogosphere is the primary focus, Blog P.I.’s interest extends to all corners of the Internet, with an emphasis on user-generated media and what’s often referred to as Web 2.0.
It also happens to be a weblog primarily written by William Beutler, an Internet analyst in Washington, DC. Other contributors include itinerant academic Olly Ruff and pseudonymous Dem consultant Not Paul Begala.
While the writers have their ideological blindspots like anyone else, commentaries at Blog P.I. aim for observation and reason, not assumption and opinion. Though sometimes we will snipe and grouse, we’ll also strive not to jump the snark. It’s a constant struggle.
William Beutler is the Innovation Manager with the Public Affairs practice of New Media Strategies, an online marketing and strategic consulting firm. From 2007-08 he was a member of the web team for the Fred Thompson presidential campaign.
Previously he was a Senior Writer with National Journal’s Hotline, where he co-created and wrote The Blogometer.
His freelance work has appeared in the National Journal, Washington Examiner, Washington Monthly and Weekly Standard. He holds a degree in English from the University of Oregon, where he also served two years as editor-in-chief of the student-run Oregon Commentator.
He has also appeared on “The Radio Factor” with Bill O’Reilly and (in a non-bluffing capacity) NPR’s “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me!” His personal blog is the Washington Canard.
Olly Ruff has spent the past decade lurking in or near many fine educational institutions, including the University of Oregon. He is a confessed Briton who has no business holding forth on American politics, and he currently lives in Ohio.
Not Paul Begala is a Democratic strategist who has worked campaigns in both rural, “red” America and urban, “blue” America. He has had the distinct honor to serve three different MoCs, an NGO lobbying the Hill on “issues,” in the vaunted fourth estate and at McDonald’s when he was 16. He usually sticks to centrist and liberal blogs, finding enough to get worked up about there to even consider reading the other side. He fills the time by reading tech and sports blogs instead.
