Blog Power

The mainstream media is truly being brought to heel by blog power. We've got a mainstream paper reporting on a mainstream paper reporting on blogs. Boo-ya.

In the insane South Dakota Senate race ($80-plus dollars per voter spent), blogs were used by the G.O.P. to circumvent the Democrats at the state's biggest paper. Clearly in favor of a vigorous public debate, the paper responded in kind.

Randell Beck, executive editor of the Argus Leader, called some of the bloggers' work "crap" and said they represented an organized effort by conservatives to discredit his paper. In July, he explained to readers that "true believers of one stripe or another, no longer content to merely bore spouses and neighbors with their nutty opinions, can now spew forth on their own blogs, thereby playing a pivotal role in creating the polarized climate that dominates debate on nearly every national issue. If Hitler were alive today, he'd have his own blog."

Opinion Journal further reports:

The blogs and other alternative media outlets became the tail wagging the media dog. "Argus Leader reporters said the pressure from the blogs increased until a 'siege mentality' took over at the paper, according to one source. Complaints flooded the paper's office," National Journal's John Stanton reported.