Blogs and Dispersed Knowledge
Stephen Humphries of The Christian Science Monitor has a smart piece on blogs and the CBS memo mess. (I'm quoted.) The nut graf:
For the most part, political blogs act as forums for armchair pundits to deliver often-partisan commentary. But because blogs link to one another with comments and feedback, the buzz around one story can attract the attention of hundreds of thousands of blog readers, who in turn can offer "on the spot" knowledge or expertise. In the CBS case, bloggers raised the initial doubts, analyzed each new wrinkle, and occasionally did original reporting, scooping the professionals.
As I said in the interview, blogs and their readers acted not only as editors, checking the reporters, but as sources with expertise to bear on the story.