And of course Matt Drudge of www.DrudgeReport.com escorted Monica Lewinsky onto the stage.
During the Iraq war, "warbloggers" often posted new developments far ahead of the mainstream. Kathryn Jean Lopez, editor of National Review Online, slept maybe 4.5 hours the entire three weeks as she posted on the site's group blog, "The Corner." Put it this way, as you were waking up, Lopez was on her third Diet Coke.
The best bloggers, who are generous in linking to one another -alien behavior to journalists accustomed to careerist, shark-tank newsrooms -are like smart, hip gunslingers come to make trouble for the local good ol' boys. The heat they pack includes an arsenal of intellectual artillery, crisp prose, sharp insights and a gimlet eye for mainstream media's flaws.
Glenn Reynolds, the blogosphere's Rowdy Yates ( www.Instapundit.com ), as well as a University of Tennessee law professor, last year wrote, "Big journalism is in trouble," and proclaimed "the end of the power of Big Media."
He's right about the trouble part, but the blogosphere may help more than hurt. The view from my bunker suggests that blogs can't be anything but good for journalism. Just as a new restaurant is good for established ones, competition is good. And fun! As another famous cowboy recently put it, "Bring `em on!"
Besides, for all their trail-blazing and herd-prodding -you knew this was coming -the blogosphere still ain't a newspaper. You can't hold the blogosphere in your hands. You can't feel a blog, smell it, fold it, hand it across the breakfast table or throw it down in a rage. You can't cut out stories and strawberry them to the fridge, line the birdcage, swat flies, house-train the puppy or wrap fish in it.
In the end, a blog is just a blog, but a newspaper -cradled caffeinated in a morning lap curled barefoot into the seat of a porch rocker -is a read.