The currently most popular independent political websites

The latest press release from ComScore - Huffington Post and Politico Lead Wave of Explosive Growth at Independent Political Blogs and News Sites this Election Season - has all sorts of interesting statistics about relative traffic, etc., of the top independent (i.e., unaffiliated with MSM) websites and blogs. One tidbit I found particularly interesting:

Looking at the demographic profiles for the top three sites, HuffingtonPost.com, Politico.com and DrudgeReport.com, one can conclude that visitors to these sites tend to be older, wealthier, and more likely to be male than the average U.S. Internet user.

Of the three sites, Politico.com skewed the oldest with 23 percent of its visitors age 55 and older, while DrudgeReport.com skewed wealthiest, with 40 percent of its visitors earning at least $100,000 a year, and had the highest concentration of males at 57 percent. HuffingtonPost.com, the site with the largest audience, was the most similar of the three when compared to the overall U.S. Internet audience.

Politico.com has the most old-timey look, DrudgeReport.com is read by the DC circle-jerk including the MSM pundits who were duped into thinking that Drudge is trustworthy (and I am glad to see it slipping down), and Huffington Post is a mix of some of the best opinion with some of the worst that one can find on the Left - blatant sexism (especially towards Palin), anti-vaccination woo, animal rights crap, New Age medical quackery and such - not a place I visit often as it represents the worst of the Left (and exposes that not everyone who is liberal is actually a member of the Reality Community).

Glad to see that Talkingpointsmemo.com, Crooksandliars.com and Fivethirtyeight.com are high and rising - that is some of the best New Journalism out there.