The Singer's Song

In an interview with CNET News on Thursday March 3, Federal Elections Commissioner Bradley Smith – a Republican – warned that blogs might become effectively illegal as a result of a recent court ruling. “It's going to be a battle, and if nobody in Congress is willing to stand up and say, ‘Keep your hands off of this, and we'll change the statute to make it clear,’ then I think grassroots Internet activity is in danger.”

Bloggers on both the right and left seethed with outrage over the comments. Duncan Black, whose blog Eschaton is named for a section in Pomona Professor David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest, worried that it could be “The End of the Internets.” Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo wrote, “If this is the law, then the law is an ass.” Michelle Malkin made a call to action: “This is something bloggers of all political stripes should unite against.”

It is unclear whether Smith’s statement was a true omen or merely a means by which he could stir up contempt against Campaign Finance Reform. But one question remains: would it matter if blogs disappeared tomorrow?

People seem to be getting their news from the blogosphere. There are roughly 8,000,000 weblogs. 32 million Americans read them and more than 14 million have contributed to them. They’ve become so pervasive in the culture that “blog” was Merriam-Webster’s word of the year in 2004.

Daily Kos stands at the pinnacle of blogistan. Its 400,000 unique visitors per day rival the readership of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and triple that of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. But blogs are not yet a fully independent medium. Most sites, Kos included, rely on wire reports and articles in major newspapers, magazines and journals.

The image of bloggers as a mass of college students pontificating in their PJs is not far from reality. Perhaps this is what makes blogs so powerful. Unlike the “mainstream media,” they are democratic. Literally anyone can go to Blogger.com, Typepad.com, LiveJournal.com or any number of other sites and become an instant pundit within five minutes.

Bloggers have even been able to stump the established media in a number of cases. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott lost his job because a blogger picked up on his claim that the nation would have been better off had segregationist Strom Thurmond been elected in 1948. Dan Rather was ousted from CBS when right wing bloggers questioned the validity of documents used on 60 Minutes II.

Even more recently, alleged online escort and right wing hack J.D. Guckert (also known as Jeff Gannon) lost his spot in the White House press room because bloggers exposed that he was no more than a partisan hatchet man working for a Republican operative. CNN Vice President Eason Jordan was forced to resign as a result of comments unearthed by a blogger.

Clearly, blogs provide a great public service in delivering real news from real people. And if they’re gone tomorrow, we’re going to be stuck with Fox News.

Posted by: Jonathan Singer / 10:05 PM