- Bill - Of course....the blogswarm represents a new "amorphously distributed observers" group, available to the MSM/Cable outlets. A new self policing news gathering arm they have as yet to really get their minds around and embrace. I doubt the blogsphere leaders themselves generally understand the breadth and depth of their new found power. It took a catalyst, which the events of the past few weeks provided, to break through the membrain wall of the oldline media spyrocyte and cause the fertalization to begin. But make no mistake begin it has and the baby will be brought to term. Resistance is futile. We will be assimilated, even as we assimilate. ( to heavy in metaphore?...heh )

Hmmm... I just quibble with the "collective mind" bit. I don't like the connotations of that phrase. I see it as a cooperative endeavor, where people are getting together to exchange, share and build upon each others information, vetting the erroneous and confirming the facts. It truly is a community where each diverse talent can find a standing.

- Darleen...I don't ascribe to the terminolgy "collective mind". To me those phrases are the dying echo's of the expressed fears of the non-understanding who are beggining to be aware. I see it more as a process, starting from the widely divergent beggining you state so well, and gradually progressing through the most brutal of fast moving, and openly disscussed democratic comunication, to a consenciously acceptable final set of idea's. ( It must be sunday. I need to lay off the Maxcafe...)

In way both sides are right. Large media organization will not go away but at some point the will become more blog like. They will publish mainly online and therefore be able to get way more feedback. People organize and organizations have power this is how its always been.

At the same time as long as there are people who feel like doing it blogs won't go away ( unless the government makes them ). And they will be paid some attention because they are, in the end, discussion forums. They are like word of mouth, but they can say more and put it hyperlinks and organize their thought better.

No matter what revolutionists think there is always a "Mainstream" . When I was in college "Alternative" music was the most popular rock music. My friends and I called it the "Alternative to the unpopular".

The paradigms or power and money have not changed. There will still be large media outlets. But there will be, eventually, a fundamental shift in how they operate and who they have to pay attention to.

An analogy that old media might understand: All bloggers are writing graffiti on the same wall. The message and graphic design are personnel and represent the author's own ideas and opinions, but they're all up on the same wall for others to read and react to.

Blogs who appeal to the most readers because they are well written, are entertaining or informative are updated frequently and readers check in during the day to see what's new. Bloggers typically blog for the fun of it and have "real" lives with jobs and family. Blogging is not seen as a way to make a living although some like Andrew Sullivan have been able to combine a writing career and a blog.

Another invaluable part of blogging are the real experts in every field of human endeavor who will pop up at a second's notice to add their expertise to a question or correct even the smallest errors. This is how the phony memos were exposed so quickly.

Old media cannot compete and will be forced to change radically. News magazines might as well be cave drawings. By the time a news magazine finds your mailbox, it is not only old news, it's probably wrong news as well. That's why media outlets all have websites they keep timely with frequent updates.

Pretty soon it will occur to everybody that the old way of getting information is passe. We have recently gone to complete internet banking and automatic bill paying. It's fabulous. Our bank accounts, credit card accounts, utility bills, etc. are available 24/7. We don't have to go through the annoying and time consuming process of opening envelopes, writing checks, affixing stamps, etc. The post office will soon have far less mail to process, fewer trees will be felled and so on down the chain.

Media lions like Dan Rather have forgotten that before TV news programs, only a few colorful reporters like Walter Winchell or Edward R. Morrow became celebrities. Most reporters were working stiffs, not the exalted media darlings of today who live in such exalted circles that they've become the personification of the old joke about patrician Boston where the Lodges talked only to the Cabots and Cabots talked only to God.

Really, this is standard fare with anything new. Radio is going to replace books. Movies will replace Radio. TV will replace movies. The Internet will replace everything. MP3 will destroy the music industry.

I get so tired of hearing this BS arguments about replacement made by people who simply are scared of or unable to innovate.

Jake - Who do you think is afraid innovation? People are comfortable doing things the way they always did them. Believe it or not someday you'll be raging against whatever new things are happening in 2025.

My daughter aged 45 used to berate me growing up because I couldn't stand her music. She said I simply wouldn't allow myself to listen to it so I could understand how good is was. Fast forward.

Guess who can't stand today's music, rap and whatever else the caterwauling is called.

Oh well.

I appreciate the discussion of the benefit of blogs carrying over to MSM coverage. the blogosphere and internet offer an important breadth of information that takes readers from a static, pap-imbibing position to an active one that I think has a positive affect in combating apathy.

but I don't think we are headed for a Jetsons world that eliminates paper or personal contact banking. it certainly enhances it with additional methods of convenience. it isn't an issue of overtaking the Luddites; it's an issue of preference for the tangible, personal experience. many people like paper's manipulability. many people prefer to do business in person at their bank.

funny thing about the "collective mind" comment -- I understood it to represent exactly what Darleen outlined. we may be individual, but we all share a vast array of human traits, needs and desires. the terms for the intersection of these things work as either community or collective. and I'm interested and hopeful about what these connections can mean about the future.

They're worried about the bloggers not having any checks and balances? Dan Rather and CBS were the one's who were attacking the president with fraudulent documents, and failing to comply with any level of ethical standards. Now the MSM knows that their evidence must be of a higher quality before they report it. I'm sure the bloggers will welcome your correct anything they say, as long as it's based on facts.

Ya see Dan, we don't care if you attack the president, as long as it's based on credible evidence.

And that's why we need to have a talk about Iraq. In my opinion, the MSM is just totally fuking up the reporting from Iraq. Which contributes to the rising casualty rates of our troops too.

You're worried about the bloggers not having any checks and balances? Dan Rather and CBS you are the one's who are attacking the president with fraudulent documents, and failing to comply with any level of ethical standards. Now you and the MSM know that the evidence must be of a higher quality before you report it, and there won't be any problem. I'm sure the bloggers will welcome your to correct them too, as long as it's based on factual and provable evidence, instead of "gut feelin', otherwise I've got a gut feelin' that your an asshole, but I'm short on documents right now? But everyone knows you are an asshole, so can we go ahead tell everyone as long as we can provide some fraudulent documents? Or should something like that be backed up with legitimate documents, since it's a personal attack?

Ya see Dan, we don't care if you attack the president, as long as it's based on credible evidence.

And that's why we need to have a talk about Iraq. In my opinion, the MSM is just totally fuking up the reporting from Iraq. Which contributes to the rising casualty rates of our troops too.

It's time for the MSM to be subjected to the same kind of oversight that the MSM likes to do the the Republican party.

Companion? With luck, they will be. Right now a better word is 'counterweight'.

Once again, I believe that blogs primarily make a necessary companion to the MSM, rather than representing some sort of replacement.

I think I can agree with that terminology...to a great extent.

counterweight works as well -- isn't that one reason why we read multiple sources?