Kathy Kiely, writing in USA TODAY of all places, weighs in with what, in our humble opinion, is the best mainstream media article to date on the blogging phenomena. The woman “gets it” and knows how to explain it in a way mainstream, middle American people can understand. She’s done her homework; the article features quotes from Jay Rosen, Jeff Jarvis, Andrew Sullivan, Matt Stoller, Glenn Reynolds, Mickey Kaus and our own Chris Lydon, among others.
If the Dowbrigade was going to send ONE article to someone who knew nothing about Blogs, this is the one we would send.
WASHINGTON — They used to be known as the boys on the bus: the big-name columnists, network TV producers and reporters for large-circulation newspapers who had the power to make or break a presidential candidate’s reputation. Now they’ve got competition.
In the 2004 election, the boys (and girls) on the bus have been joined by a new class of political arbiters: the geeks on their laptops. They call themselves bloggers. Their mission: to remake political journalism and, quite possibly, democracy itself. The plan: to run an end around big media by becoming publishers on the Internet.
“There’s no question in my mind that political bloggers are a major new development,” says Ellen Miller, a longtime political activist and Washington lobbyist who reads blogs. “It takes the media out of the hands of the corporate world and puts it into the hands of guys with computers.”