Vile wrote:
] Okay, then George W. Bush, Paris Hilton, Scott Peterson, and
] Britney Spears are the most useful people in America.

More useful then either of us. Bush is running the government. Hilton and Spears are (apparently) entertaining. I'd almost argue that Peterson is as well. Why else do people pay attention to him. Its not like thats the only murder that has occurred this year. He is this season's goldstein.

] Give me a break. Bloggers are the kind of armchair media that turns
] the internet into a cybertower of babel. Can't wait till the
] terrorists nail our powergrids so I no longer have to listen
] to, or read, misinformation.

Then what are you doing here? I might suggest Dan Gillmore's new book. I haven't read it, but it does discuss the topic and why its important.

http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/wemedia/

Of course, there are simpler examples:

It's safe to assume that, before he flushed his reputation down the toilet, Trent Lott had absolutely no idea what a blog was.

He may have a clue now. Internet opinion pages like Instapundit, run by University of Tennessee law professor Glenn Reynolds, and Talking Points Memo, from leftie political columnist Josh Marshall -- were among the first to latch on to ABCNews.com's brief item on Lott's racist comments during Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday bash.

And they kept focusing on Lott's hateful past -- until the national press corps finally had to take notice.

"Joshua Marshall, whose talkingpointsmemo.com is must reading for the politically curious, (is) more than anyone else, responsible for making Trent Lott's offensive remarks the issue they deserve to be," noted Paul Krugman in his New York Times column.

http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,56978,00.html

RE: The New York Times - The Internet: Web Diarists Are Now Official Members of Convention Press Corps