Bloggers Focus on Palin's "One Nation" Tour

It was Sarah Palin and her controversial “One Nation” bus tour that led bloggers back to politics.

For the week of May 30-June 3, 12% of the news links on blogs were about the potential candidate’s actions, making Palin the No. 1 subject, according to the New Media Index from the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism. This is the first time in two months that politics led the discussion on blogs. The last time was in early March when the crop of potential Republican candidates for the 2012 presidential campaign was the most linked-to subject. Other hot political topics in recent weeks such as the presence of Donald Trump’s potential candidacy, the release of President Obama’s original birth certificate, and even the negotiations that nearly resulted in a federal government shutdown were not enough to turn the blogosphere’s attention to politics. At 12%, the story was not an overwhelming portion of the conversation when compared to the portion garnered by other top stories, such as the breakup of Maria Shriver and Arnold Schwarzenegger three weeks ago (41%) or the death of Elizabeth Taylor in March (33%). But it drew bloggers in and was large enough to top all other subjects last week.