Last week, politics was the overriding theme in the blogosphere.
Several controversies-including the growth of anti-poverty programs, what liberals think of conservatives and the nature of President Obama's opposition-stirred up divisive online conversation.
Heated commentary and even inflammatory accusations ensued from both sides of the political spectrum and often seemed to result in the ideological foes talking past each other.
For the week of August 30-September 3, almost a third (32%) of the news links on blogs linked to a USA Today article reporting that one in six (and rising) Americans are on government assistance programs like Medicare. That made it the week's No. 1 subject in the blogosphere, according to the New Media Index from the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism.
The majority of bloggers who discussed the story saw it as a strong indication that the economy is in terrible shape and blamed President Obama for the growth of public dependence on government.
Read the full report, Bloggers Fired Up by Heated Political Debates on the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism Web site.