With respect to blogs...

Depending on the source... some of them are "blah, blah, blah." However, others are actually more like newspaper columns and editorials taken to an immediate, multimedia, interactive level.

Some blogs of note include the Washington Post Blog, Slashdot.org, the GoogleBlog and Paul Graham. Truth that most of the blogs out there are "blah, blah, blah." However, blogging is becoming an important medium for news and information.

Do you remember the raid by Chechnyan terrorists on a crowded Moscow theatre (Oct 23, 2002)? The government news agency quelled all news broadcasts about the situation. The only source of news came from hostages that were blogging via their cell phones. This became especially pertinent when the blackout continued after more than 100 of the hostages died from gas released to kill the terrorists. The Russian government would have kept it quiet... but the bloggers brought it out.

Blogging has also turned into a large mass of folks (that many now refer to as "the blogosphere") that does fact checking on what is going on in traditional media channels. One of the things that they've done the "that's not right!" on lately included recent reports that "our economy is great! Look at the unemployment figures! 97% of our nation is employed!" Of course... if you *really* understand unemployment reports... that isn't the case at all. Unemployment numbers count the number of people on unemployment rolls. NOT the actual number of people that are unable to find sufficient employment. The following people don't appear on unemployment rolls:

• those that have used up all of their unemployment benefits (unemployment is limited to 6 months in most states)
• those that have given up on being employed and have:
• decided to stay home
• started their own business (however successful it might or might not be)
• decided to "go to school" instead of work
  
• those that have taken any job and are under-employed (not enough pay, not enough health benefits, etc.)

As such, to say that "everything is great" because less than 4% of the nation is on unemployment rosters... is a falacy. The "traditional" media didn't point this out. The bloggers did... then the media picked it up in some markets.

Blogs are also dead wrong sometimes. I don't remember the exact scandal... but a washington type was fingered for some scandal or another via a blog. Traditional media outlets immediately picked it up without fact checking... and it turned out to be false. Law suits were filed, etc. So... they're not perfect.

IMHO (in my humble opinion), blogging is just starting. Just like newspapers, television and radio... just because it's published, doesn't mean it's right/respectable/reliable. All of these media outlets had to EARN their respect. Blogging is starting to do so. Many media outlets are begining to engage in "citizen journalism" (or citj) where they will accept blog posts from the citizenry, do some fact checking and release an edited copy (or for citj writers deemed reliable... it gets released directly). I think we're going to see more of this and I think it can be a good thing... IF we make sure it doesn't become our only source of information in the coming decade. To do so would squeeze out refereed professional journalism... which, while it has a bad name right now, is still better than unrefereed untrained journalists having full control over "the media."