"I am concerned that if the direction of the news is all blogosphere, all opinions, with no serious fact-checking, no serious attempts to put stories in context, that what you will end up getting is people shouting at each other across the void but not a lot of mutual understanding,"

say wha?

he's not reading the right blogs then...

what he said is more true of tv and the press, blogging, being open source, has much more recourse to research and fact checks through sheer numbers of curious people ready to go dig deeper than the tradmed does, especially lately.

sure, blogs are heavy with opinions as well as facts, but that's part of what makes them so satisfying at their best, it's more real as reflection of our natures, which slipslide from sublimely serious to ridiculously silly without missing a beat.

there's a balance there that's missing from stuffier forms of media. of course there are blogs like redstate and lgf that whip up the budding becks of this world, but if they are the bathwater, no need to flush the most interestingly new form of media for decades along with them.

way to miss the point, o-man!

The power of knowledge is in mortal combat with the knowledge of power. It really is that simple... That's the Edenic apple we are all munching on.