Eric Alterman and Hirschorn both say that the sober, thorough newsgathering function of the old media is being taken away by the internet.

It's going to be replaced by the obsessive, not the Internet, per se. The Internets is only the delivery system. What I mean by 'the obsessive' is someone who, either by agreeing to a severe cut in pay working at home, or by working at some other job for sustenance, will take on a subject and delve into it deeply. Become more than the expert on it.

And, oh, that sober, thorough newsgathering function? That vaunted activity? Right. Could be undercut by an editor or corporate sponsor with an agenda in a nanosecond. The difference now with the web is that the sober, thorough newsgathering function becomes transparent, a translucent Mu Shu pork pancake through which you can observe the writer learn, change, and grow. That process was not permitted before.

There is another reason, however, that blogs are useful vehicles of news. They are often better researched, and better writen than the MSN.

One of the best reasons, however, is blogs make a great repository of facts and background. It would seem that too many "journalists" today write the news as though they had never taken a history course.