Instapundit is a

conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

blog A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is an informational website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries also known as posts. Posts are typically displayed in Reverse chronology, reverse chronologic ...

maintained by

Glenn Reynolds Glenn Harlan Reynolds (born August 27, 1960) is an American legal scholar who is the Beauchamp Brogan Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Tennessee College of Law. He is known for his American politics blog, ''Instapundit''. Ins ...

, a law professor at the

University of Tennessee The University of Tennessee, Knoxville (or The University of Tennessee; UT; UT Knoxville; or colloquially UTK or Tennessee) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee, United St ...

History and characteristics

InstaPundit was launched in August 2001 as an experiment, and a part of Reynolds' class on Internet law. After the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

, the site quickly became a highly popular

– with Reynolds celebrated as "chief among the warbloggers" – and was dubbed the "Grand Central Station of Bloggerville" in 2002 and reported to be "the most visited login the world" in early 2004. A 2007 memo from the

National Republican Senatorial Committee The National Republican Senate Committee (NRSC) is the Republican Hill committee for the United States Senate, working to elect Republicans to the Senate. The NRSC was founded in 1916 as the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee. It was reor ...

described Reynolds as one of the five "best-read national conservative bloggers." Common topics are politics,

technology Technology is the application of Conceptual model, conceptual knowledge to achieve practical goals, especially in a reproducible way. The word ''technology'' can also mean the products resulting from such efforts, including both tangible too ...

(such as

nanotechnology Nanotechnology is the manipulation of matter with at least one dimension sized from 1 to 100 nanometers (nm). At this scale, commonly known as the nanoscale, surface area and quantum mechanical effects become important in describing propertie ...

space exploration Space exploration is the process of utilizing astronomy and space technology to investigate outer space. While the exploration of space is currently carried out mainly by astronomers with telescopes, its physical exploration is conducted bo ...

, human longevity,

digital photography Digital photography uses cameras containing arrays of electronic photodetectors interfaced to an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) to produce images focused by a lens, as opposed to an exposure on photographic film. The digitized image is ...

, individual liberty and

gun politics Gun laws and policies, collectively referred to as firearms regulation or gun control, regulate the manufacture, sale, transfer, possession, modification, and use of small arms by civilians. Laws of some countries may afford civilians a right to ...

domestic policy Domestic policy, also known as internal policy, is a type of public policy overseeing administrative decisions that are directly related to all issues and activity within a state's borders. It differs from foreign policy, which refers to the ways ...

, the media, and the

blogosphere The blogosphere is made up of all blogs and their interconnections. The term implies that blogs exist together as a connected community (or as a collection of connected communities) or as a social networking service in which everyday authors can pu ...

as a social phenomenon. Instapundit frequently discussed the war on terror from a supportive-but-critical viewpoint. Reynolds has also lent his support to the Porkbusters campaign, which purports to expose misallocation of federal funds. In June 2009, Reynolds changed his blog header to the color green from its original red, in support of the anti- Ahmadinejad/pro- Mousavi protests made after the Iranian Presidential election. This was originally supposed to be a temporary show of support, but it lasted about three months. On September 7, 2009, Reynolds replaced the green with his customary red, remarking, "I’m back to the original design. 'Going Green' was supposed to be a show of support, not a permanent change, and the summer’s over. My support for the Iranian freedom movement is no less, but symbolism takes you only so far."

Influence on other bloggers

Sometimes referred to as "the Blogfather, and credited with an "ethic of driving traffic to new blogs from all over the political spectrum," Reynolds managed to attract a large following of imitators who adopted his blogging style. His ability to "foster a hospitable environment for new bloggers" has been attributed to his involvement in home-recording

punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

and new-wave music, and his adaptation of the participatory ethos of these musical styles to online publishing. In April 2002, Reynolds published a list of well over two hundred blogs that claimed to be directly inspired by his own. Instapundit's popularity led to the common adoption of the suffix "-pundit" in blog titles, for example

Kevin Drum Kevin Drum (October 19, 1958 – March 7, 2025) was an American journalist. Drum initially rose to prominence through the popularity of his independent blog ''Calpundit'' (2003–2004). He later was invited to launch another blog, ''Political An ...

(who originally blogged as "CalPundit") and Allahpundit. There are also direct take-offs on the entire name, such as Instapunk, and IsntAPundit. There are many other "-pundit" blogs, of all political stripes inspired to some degree by Instapundit.

References

External links

*
Instapundit in 'Blogging America: Political Discourse in a Digital Nation By Barbara O'Brien

Instapundit in Infotopia: How Many Minds Produce Knowledge By Cass R. Sunstein
* {{cite web , last=Roberts , first=Russ , title=Glenn Reynolds on Politics, the Constitution, and Technology, url=http://www.econtalk.org/archives/_featuring/glenn_reynolds/ , work= EconTalk , publisher=

Library of Economics and Liberty Liberty Fund, Inc. is an American nonprofit foundation headquartered in Carmel, Indiana, that promotes the libertarian views of its founder, Pierre F. Goodrich, through publishing, conferences, and educational resources. The operating mandate ...

, author-link=Russ Roberts , date=February 18, 2013 American political blogs Milblogs Internet properties established in 2001

History and characteristics

Influence on other bloggers

See also

References

External links