Europe - Bloggers Responsible for No Vote?

It's possible according to this BBC report.

Evidently one French bloger, who backed the no vote, was getting 25,000 hits a day before the vote.

The French newspaper dubbed Marseille law teacher Etienne Chouard "Don Quichotte du non".

Mr Chouard did not much care for the EU Constitution, but instead of simply voicing his upset to his neighbours, he wrote an essay and set up a blog to explain why he was voting 'Non'.

Just ahead of the vote, his blog was getting 25,000 hits a day and his anti-constitution broadside had been photocopied, faxed and blogged about across France.

Despite overwhelming support for the constitution by the governments of both France and the Netherlands and a huge media campaign by political leaders in both countries, voters have rejected the constitution.

And just as the media and political establishment in the US found during last year's presidential election, European elites have now felt the sting of these online upstarts, the bloggers.

Online upstarts? These upstarts are changing the political and media landscape around the globe and we've even got our eyes on you Aunty.

And Publius even gets a mention! Shame they didn't give him a link.

But it was not just Mr Chouard, Nicolas Vanbremeersch of the blog Publius actually expected more online activism than took place in France after the role of blogs in the US presidential campaign last year.

Well, remember Fance is the size of California I believe.

I'd like to see more UK bloggers take on the British media.
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