Polanski Outrage in the Blogosphere

The September 27 arrest of director Roman Polanski in Switzerland -- more than 30 years after he pled guilty to having sex with a minor and then fled the US -- energized the blogosphere last week. An overwhelming majority of commentators wanted to see Polanski punished for his crime and harshly criticized his supporters in the entertainment industry. For the week of September 28-October 2, more than a third (34%) of the links to news-related stories from blogs were focused on the Polanski saga, according to the New Media Index from the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. That was more than three times the attention that the second-largest story, health care, received from bloggers last week.