Whither the Blogosphere, Nick Coleman?

Iit's been only a few days since The Minneapolis Star-Tribune's Nick Coleman suffered a very public, very embarassing end-of-year breakdown. His attempt to insult Time Magazine's blog-of-the-year, Powerline, and tar them as insecure, highly compensated GOPeratives worked out about as well as a Denny McClain comeback attempt.



The blogosphere responded with a punishing barrage. The Powerline gang responded, of course, and a host of other bloggers took up the cause as well.



Given everything that's happened in 2004... heck, given just the real-time mobilization of the blogosphere to report upon and respond to the tragic aftermath of the tsunami, one would think that even Nick Coleman could grasb the obvious:



Comparing the blogosphere with the mainstream media...



o The blogosphere is more nimble, able to array credible reporters on every street corner and in every village

o The blogosphere is more scalable, able to redeploy resources at a moment's notice

o The blogosphere is more accurate, with every story of significance fact-checked and vetted by hundreds or thousands of competitors, hoping to uncover a gaffe or scandal (with experts ranging from forgery analysis *ahem* to military tactics)

o The blogosphere is more comprehensive, achieving more sensors, reporters, analysts and editors than the MSM could ever hope to amass



Whither the blogosphere, Nick?



The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind. The answer is blowing in the wind. Oh, and Nick, don't you love the smell of napalm in the morning?