Titled: Blogging ... Blah, Blah, Blah

U.S. News & World Report reported last week that several senior Republican senators — upon hearing that "blogs" had uncovered the Dan Rather scandal, helped to defeat Tom Daschle and pushed for the resignation of CNN executive Eason Jordan — demanded that "blogs" be added to their official Web sites.

Even though, as a Capitol Hill Web consultant told the magazine, most of them hadn't the slightest idea of what a "blog" actually is.

Nor would they be all that happy with all that is said on many of those Blogs. Most of the Conservative Bloggers, at least the ones I read, and I suspect many of the liberal bloggers are more libertarian in their political philosophies. In the last election there were many Conservative Bloggers who endorsed Republican candidates somewhat reluctantly are were not shy about talking about where they differed from various candidates.

To be successful in this arena you have to stand out and being a political party cheerleader is not enough. I cannot think of too many politicians with the political courage to stand by unrestricted political speech when a Blogger they have linked to happens to disagree with them on some issue. I suspect in such a case the politician will suddenly learn a new "Blog" term. A term known as delinking.

It's an amusing story, but the more I read about the weblogging phenomenon from traditional media sources — the more I hear about it from talk show hosts and pundits, and the more triumphalism, tribalism, and group hurt we're starting to see from the "blogosphere" — the more I'm convinced that even "hip" reporters and tech-savvy bloggers themselves don't really "get" blogs any more than those senior Republican senators do.

In truth, "blogs" are nothing more than a relatively new way of distributing information, just as radio, television, newsprint, and conventional Web sites once were. Blogs differ from other media in that they provide links for easy referencing, they're more easily and quickly updated (and, consequently, many times less carefully edited), they allow for more interaction between reader and publisher, and there's virtually no barrier to entry — meaning just about anyone can start his or her own blog. You don't need to win the approval of an editor. You don't need start-up money from a publisher. You don't need a radio tower.

The Blogosphere has given birth to millions of independent self publishers. Instead of a printing press a connection to the internet and some space to fill is all that is required.

I think the Founding Fathers would be proud.