Syndicated columnist Ellen Goodman is new to the blogosphere, but discovers (she's FAR from the first) that, like many older forms of media, it is dominated by people like me--educated white men. (To which I can only reply, "If you don't like the news, make some of your own!)

This writer seems to have "seen" very selectively at YearlyKos, and has forgotten the influence of Arianna Huffington's blog, Digby, the women who run FireDogLake, the women of DailyKos, and many others. She has forgotten the formative influence of the Wonkette, the original of whom is now on the staff of the Washington Post. Important information about the cited study is lacking. How representative is it? Is it comparing apples to apples, or is it treating dozens of small, male-driven blogs on the same footing with large, female-driven blogs?

My favorite question for this rating was "Do you know about this topic?" because I obviously know more than Ellen Goodman. I've met Markos, and--though he's clearly male--he's equally obviously not white. There are also plenty of us with political blogs who are not male--like me, for example. Seems like pretty sweeping statements on a pretty thin basis.

The referenced study doesn't disclose why the top 90 political blogs were chosen as the sample universe. Why not the top 100, or 25 or 250? Evidence was not provided to show a glass ceiling in the blogosphere - or is this article posing a different question? Some anecdotal evidence was posted about threats to women bloggers - but this seems far from conclusive. Perhaps the question is this: Why don't more women blog? (If in fact that is a problem as implied by this piece - and I'm not saying it isn't.)