The Blogs Must Be Crazy

Reposted as history. Originally posted in February of 2005.


Or maybe the MSM is just suffering from freedom envy
Peggy Noonan - Thursday, February 17, 2005 - wsj.com Opinion Journal

Blogging changes how business is done in American journalism. The MSM isn't over. It just can no longer pose as if it is The Guardian of Established Truth. The MSM is just another player now.

It is interesting how so much of the discussion of blogs focuses exclusively on the part of news and journalism in which the blogs and MSM overlap. This is mostly in the area of political news and opinion. And yet the blogs that are really the most interesting are the ones that are still not getting noticed. Speciality blogs. These are starting with small audiences and they have no apparent chance of exploding onto the national scene. Local community service blogs. Blogs for a club. Blogs for a religion. They are simply growing, and helping the audience they serve to grow (and grow together) by communicating. As they continue to grow, I am fascinated by what their impact will be and how much they can grow. When will they start to get visibility in national news?

The power of the Internet is this amazing ability to bring the world together. That is what the MSM is experiencing. They are being brought together with their audience of readers and listeners. They can no longer hide in the "ivory tower". The blogs are clawing their way into the newsrooms and demanding that the MSM become a part of the greater society. The blogs allow us to communicate back to the MSM gods. They may not like what they hear, but they cannot stop the communication.

Only five short years ago who would have predicted the growth of this infant niche of political blogs into a power that could bring down Dan Rather and Eason Jordan. People need to notice, the specialty blogs are growing. I think Peggy Noonan is on to something with her point about "freedom". That is what blogs bring to the table. Amazing freedom. There is little doubt, "You ain't seen nothing yet!"