Presidential campaigns, journalists share lists on Google Reader
Google's new "Power Readers in Politics" shares lists and articles followed by the presidential campaigns and political journalists.
The press coverage of this year's campaign season can appear endless, but the campaigns of John McCain and Barack Obama are giving readers suggestions for which stories to follow on Google's Power Readers in Politics site, launched Monday.
The two campaigns, along with a handful of political journalists, have created lists on Google Reader of the sources they subscribe to. Users can subscribe to their lists, see what stories the politicos are sharing, and read their comments.
The journalists included on the Power Readers site include Mike Allen of the Politico, Chuck DeFeo of Townhall.com, John Dickerson from Slate, Mark Halperin from Time Magazine, Arianna Huffington of The Huffington Post, Ruth Marcus of The Washington Post, Jon Meacham from Newsweek, and Patrick Ruffini of The Next Right.
While the journalists have provided some candid insights into the articles that interest them ("The only way to vote for the principled, heroic, maverick McCain is if you had a time machine," writes Arianna Huffington), comments from the campaigns have so far been limited. However, the reading lists for both the McCain and Obama campaigns clearly reflect their interests and political affiliations. McCain's list, for instance, features Fox News, The Weekly Standard, and the U.S. Navy site. Obama's list includes Think Progress, The Daily Show, and Daily Kos.
The variety of news and opinion available on the Web may be endless--but, as the candidates' lists reveal, it's increasingly easier for readers to only take in the news they want to.
