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« Walter Benn Michaels and "The Price of Admission" | Main | People's instinctive rhythms » Friday, September 8, 2006All those in favor type "aye"The Pocket Part, an "online companion" of the Yale Law Journal, has posted an essay by Jack Balkin in which the Yale law prof describes how his blog, Balkinization, played a surprising role in the debate over the NSA's domestic surveillance program. Balkin says that his blog became an important forum for discussion of a bill proposed by Sen. Arlen Specter and touted as a check on programs like the NSA's. He notes that the analysis on his blog changed the timbre of coverage the bill was receiving in the press, and even led Rep. Jane Harman, the ranking Democrat on the House Select Intelligence Committee, to ask if she could share her views as a guest blogger on Balkanization. Balkin uses the Specter example en route to a larger discussion of the ways that online media are changing how legal scholarship works. I've found that legal bloggers have an unfortunate propensity for wondering aloud (on their blogs) about how important their blogs are, but Balkin's analysis is compelling. (I should also note that Balkinization has one of the funnier blog taglines out there. It's "Balkinization: an unanticipated consequence of Jack M. Balkin.") Posted by John Swansburg at 03:50 PM
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