Saturday, May 20, 2006

Top Twenty-One Right of Center Columnists per Right of Center Bloggers

John Hawkins @ Rightwing News has a list up of the top 21 Right of Center Columnist chosen by right of center bloggers. Its a pretty impressive list of columnists but I have to admit some on the list I have not read that often. Being someone who is pretty hard on the left of center political product put out by the MSM newspapers, I should spend more time reading those on the list that I'm not that familiar with. Here are the top five from Hawkins'polling:

5) Victor Davis Hanson (49) -- 3
4) Jonah Goldberg (55)
3) Thomas Sowell (67) -- 3
2) Charles Krauthammer (91) -- 7
1) Mark Steyn (100) -- 15


I'd have a slightly different top five from my personal perspective:

5) Noonan
4) Barone
3) Hitchens
2) Krauthammer
1) Steyn


I'd put Goldberg @ 6th and Sowell @ 7th...........................What the hell, lets make it a top 10:

10) Barnes
9) Hewitt
8) Reynolds


Depending on the topic, I'd shuffle the top ten up dramatically..............

What I find interesting is how many on Hawkins' ranked columists blog in addition to writing columns. I don't think there is any question that the right of center MSM members have done a much better job of embracing the New Media and jumping in early on.......................

It would be interesting to see a top 20 list of favorite columnists from the left................Perhaps Kos can ring that up for us. I'm sure it would have Krugman, E.J. Dionne and Eleanor Clift, but it would be interesting to see.....................

BTW, I have no issue with the poll that Hawkins has produced but what about the sample group and the response rate? The poll was sent to 225 right of center bloggers (who - what made up the top 225?), and 44 responded? That is a 20% response rate, which seems low. To get a better sample I think you would have to go deeper, much deeper. Perhaps someone will do another survey that does go deeper into the right of center blogger ranks......................It would also be interesting to take the blogger qualification out and see who makes the list for right of center people in general, no blogger status required............