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HotRantsMedia.com’s Political Buzz! Report is a special purpose RSS reader for following the Top 200 most influential political blogs that cover the American political landscape.
We provide our users with an efficient tool to see at a glance an up-to-date overview of the American political blogosphere in one place. Users can conveniently access the most current blog posts from across the political spectrum on either our all encompassing AllBlogs home page, or on our dedicated LeftBlogs, MiddleBlogs or RightBlogs pages.
HotRantsMedia.com's Celebrity Buzz! Report is a special purpose RSS reader for following the most popular websites and blogs covering the world of entertainment and celebrity gossip.
Our browser interface provides a seamless transition from the overview pages directly to a desired post on a blog’s actual website and from the selected post back to the overview pages after reading the post. As further described in our Terms of Service, users have the option of using our imbedded browser or their own, if they prefer. |
A word about terminology and categories
Like the internet itself, the meaning of the word blog is continually evolving. At first, the word meant a simple internet opinion diary, written by an individual and available to the general public on the web. Blog still includes these diaries, but, as the new internet media world has grown, so too has the meaning of the word blog. This has been particularly true in the world of political opinion writing.
The word blog today often encompasses entire websites like The Huffington Post, PajamasMedia and Townhall.com. In addition, even “traditional” media companies, like The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN and others, are identifying portions of their websites as blogs. We have adopted this broader use of the term since a narrower definition would exclude very influential voices from the new internet media political debate.
We know that people will sometimes disagree with our categorization for a particular blog. These disagreements will likely be strongest in the MiddleBlogs category. We hope that most blogs and their readers will agree with the inclusion of the ones in the LeftBlogs and RightBlogs categories since most of these are openly and proudly self-identified. We have used the MiddleBlogs category for blogs that do not easily fit on the left or the right or that have a more or less balanced mix of left and right contributors. This category also contains the blogs from several of the “traditional” media companies, notwithstanding the sometimes raging debate over the extent of their liberal or conservative bias in both their news reporting and editorial opinions. |
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On our HR HotRanks page we score and rank the 45 blogs represented “above the fold” on our AllBlogs home page. These include the top 15 blogs in each category.
These rankings are our judgment of the relative influence these 45 blogs have on the political debate. As with any system measuring opinion influence, there is a subjective component to making the final ranking judgment. However, our analysis does take into account published information on links to and from other websites (a measure of influence on other opinion makers) and on the number of daily visitors, pageviews and other traffic information about the blog and the blog’s website (a measure of the number of people the blog reaches or has the potential to reach).
We believe our rankings represent a reasonable assessment of relative influence. However, we acknowledge that others may, reasonably, arrive at different conclusions. Perhaps, these rankings will inspire reasoned debate on this topic as well.
Each quarter, we reevaluate the most recent data and adjust the scores and rankings as appropriate. |
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Please send questions or comments to contact@hotrantsmedia.com |
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Terms of Service
HotRantsMedia.com is a web site (“Site”) owned by HotRants Media, LLC (“HotRants”). If you access, view or use the Site, you agree that such act is your acceptance of these Terms of Service which constitute an agreement between you and HotRants.
HotRants reserves the right to modify or amend this agreement and the Terms of Service without notice at any time. It is therefore important that you read this page regularly to ensure you are updated as to any changes. |
Nature of Site and certain use agreements
The Site provides you with tools to receive and read selected Really Simple Syndication (“RSS”) feeds made available by the publishers of such feeds to persons interested in receiving the feeds. The users of such feeds are commonly referred to as feed “subscribers.” The tools used to receive and read such feeds, such as the Site, are commonly referred to as “feed readers.” By accessing and using the Site as your feed reader for the selected RSS feeds, you agree that you intend to be, and are, a “subscriber” to all of the RSS feeds made available on the Site. You agree that the RSS feeds made available on the Site will change from time to time at the sole discretion of HotRants.
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You agree to use the Site only for purposes that are permitted by (a) the Terms of Service and (b) any applicable law, regulation or generally accepted practices or guidelines in all relevant jurisdictions (including any laws regarding the export of data or software to and from the United States or other relevant countries).
You agree that you will not engage in any activity that interferes with or disrupts the Site (or the servers and networks which are connected to the Site).
You agree that you are solely responsible for (and that HotRants has no responsibility to you or to any third party for) any breach of your obligations under the Terms of Service and for the consequences (including any loss or damage which HotRants may suffer) of any such breach. |
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You agree with and approve of the fact that HotRants allows advertisers to display advertisements on the Site. However, you agree that HotRants has no responsibility for an advertisement, product or service advertised, or any claim made by any advertiser and that HotRants is not liable for any loss or damage which may be incurred by you as a result of any reliance placed by you on the completeness, accuracy or existence of any advertising, products or other materials displayed on the Site. |
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You agree that HotRants owns all legal right, title and interest in and to the Site, including all intellectual property rights which subsist in the Site (whether those rights happen to be registered or not, and wherever in the world those rights may exist). HotRants, HotRantsMedia.com, HotRants Political Buzz! Report, HotRants Celebrity Buzz! Report, HR HotRanks, and their variations are trademarks or tradenames of HotRants Media, LLC, and all other trademarks, service marks and trade names used on the Site are the property of their respective owners, and all of the above trademarks may not be copied, downloaded or otherwise used or exploited without the permission of HotRants or the owner of such trademark, service mark or trade name. |
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General legal matters
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You agree that if HotRants does not exercise or enforce any legal right or remedy which is contained in the Terms of Service (or which HotRants has the benefit of under any applicable law), this will not be taken to be a formal waiver of HotRant’s rights and that those rights or remedies will still be available to HotRants.
If any court of law, having the jurisdiction to decide on this matter, rules that any provision of these Terms of Service is invalid, then that provision will be removed from the Terms of Service without affecting the rest of the Terms of Service. The remaining provisions of the Terms of Service will continue to be valid and enforceable. You agree not to file any lawsuits against HotRants in connection with the Site. If this agreement not to sue is held unenforceable by a court of competent jurisdiction and HotRants elects to go to arbitration, you agree to have the matter resolved by binding arbitration under the rules of the American Arbitration Association by an arbitration panel selected by HotRants with the arbitration proceeding to be located in Nueces County, Texas. Regardless of the outcome of any legal or arbitration proceeding, you agree to pay, as they are incurred, all of the costs and expenses, including reasonable attorneys’ fees, of HotRants in connection with dealing with and defending the matter.
The Terms of Service, and your relationship with HotRants under the Terms of Service, shall be governed by the laws of the State of Texas without regard to its conflict of laws provisions. You and HotRants agree that the courts located within the county of Nueces, Texas shall have jurisdiction and be the proper venue for resolving any legal matter arising from the Terms of Service Notwithstanding this, you agree that HotRants shall still be allowed to apply for injunctive remedies (or an equivalent type of urgent legal relief) in any jurisdiction.
December 2007
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