Bloggers' Influence Is Growing, While Big Media's Credibility and Influence Shrinks

For 12 years now, I've been observing the slow demise of "big media" -- the three major television networks, ABC, CBS, and NBC, all based in New York -- as the dominant source of news for the American public.

Intense competition from a multiplicity of Cable networks reduced the big networks' audience and revenue. VCRs, DVDs, video games, and the Internet have taken a chunk of time from audiences that might otherwise watch television. Worst of all for them, the wide diversity of news and opinion now available on the Internet and cable television has significantly reduced their credibility.

I've written How Internet Publishers Challenge Mainstream Media, Harken Back to 19th Century Journalism. Now here's more evidence of the democratization of journalism: Bloggers are now breaking stories that wind up on the front pages of the nation's newspapers, on the cover of news magazines and the lead stories on the national news.

Time is the latest news magazine to do a cover story on this new media trend. "Who owns the truth? Blue Truth Vs. Red Truth. What the CBS controversy says about the new rules of Campaign 2004. [It's] one more sign of the ferocious struggle between political partisans to see the world their way." A sidebar traces how the "forged documents" story grew from a web posting to news stories in The Washington Post and on ABC News.

The first story questioning Bush's military service was broken on the web on Ocober 4, 2000, by Democrats.com, an independent network of Democrats, unaffiliated with the Democratic National Committee. the Boston Globe picked the story up weeks later, before the election, but the rest of the mainstream media let it be.

Bob Fertik of Democrats.com is again closely tracking the story in his blog, asserting that the charges of forged documents are false and "a diversion."

The first detailed posting on the question of fraudulent documents came from the rabidly conservative Free Republic on Sept. 8, the same evening as the CBS broadcast, by "Buckheard," also known as Harry MacDougald, an Atlanta lawyer and Republican activist. Devoted Democrats have posted the background of MacDougald, suggesting he is working hand-in-glove with high-level Republicans like Karl Rove.

The doubt that "Buckhead" cast on the authenticity of the documents was then picked up by two conservative blog sites, Power Line, where Minnesota lawyer Scott Johnson posts, and Little Green Footballs, run by web designer Charles Johnson.

They were "among the bloggers who blew the cyber-whistle on '60 Minutes'," writes Howard Kurtz, media critic for The Washington Post. These "previously obscure bloggers managed to put the network of Murrow and Cronkite firmly on the defensive." Kurtz calls bloggers "the pajama brigade" -- unshaven guys sitting at home in their night clothes.

The cause against Dan Rather was quickly taken up by Rather Biased, a site run by Mike Krempasky, political director of a Virginia advertising firm run by conservative direct-mail guru Richard Viguerie.

LGF's Charles Johnson told the Post that the secret to effective blogging is "open-source intelligence-gathering," meaning "we've got a huge pool of highly motivated people who go out there and use the tools to find the stuff. We've got an army of citizen journalists out there."

The growing power of bloggers was also evident in late 2002, when liberal bloggers drew attention to Senate Republican Leader Trent Lott's controversial comments at the birthday party of Strom Thurmond. Within weeks, Lott was forced to resign as Senate leader.