Andrew Sullivan on the Craft of Blogging

Andrew Sullivan (possibly sitting in his living, also possibly wearing his pajamas) responds in his Time column to a former 60 Minutes executive's snarky comment that "bloggers have no checks and balances. [It's] a guy sitting in his living room in his pajamas."

Sullivan is one of the most popular of bloggers, and his defense of the medium is based on the idea that blogging is the most meritocratic form of journalism. Given the enormous amount of political commentary taking place on blogs and their related comments pages, a reader will eventually determine which blogs they trust, sympathize with, or respect. And the medium encourages dialogue between reader and writer like few others -- it is talk radio where anybody can start their own radio station. As Sullivan observes, this higher level of connectivity requires the writer to be better:

The beauty of the blogosphere is that if you make a mistake, someone will soon let you know. And if you don't correct immediately, someone will let you know again. And again. Like Internet Jack Russell terriers, readers grab ahold of your pants and don't let go until you have made amends. Blogs that ignore critics will lose credibility and readers. It's the market at its purest. And readers may have more and better information at their fingertips than the best researcher in the world.

Of course, the popularity of blogs and their effect on the political sphere is not so great that it will replace other media. Blogs are, by their original nature, a commentary on the work of others, be it academic, journalistic or political. Print/traditional journalists, especially, have no reason to worry about being replaced, as Sullivan notes:

Does this mean the old media is dead? Not at all. Blogs depend on the journalistic resources of big media to do the bulk of reporting and analysis. What blogs do is provide the best scrutiny of big media imaginable—ratcheting up the standards of the professionals, adding new voices, new perspectives and new facts every minute. The genius lies not so much in the bloggers themselves but in the transparent system they have created.

No, old media is in no danger of being replaced -- only of being held accountable in this massive letters-page that is the blogosphere.