One of the most important functions of the blogs, in my view, is to put light on things. Issues, politicians, pundits. Each other.
Take for example, the scrutiny of Joe Klein. It is now a staple of the Left Blogs to take apart Joe Klein's nonsense. But it was not always so.
In mid-2005, I knew of three bloggers, me, David Sirota and digby, who bothered much with him.
Despite that, the Blogometer could write:
Time's Joe Klein, typically no favorite of conservative bloggers, has been getting approving nods from them re: his column fact-checking House Min. Leader Nancy Pelosi's response to the NSA story, and decrying Dems' "civil-liberties fetishism" as a "hangover from the Vietnam era".
That was a stupid thing for Blogometer to write, but it got away with it then. No more.
In January 2006, David took another pass at him. In February 2006, I went at him again at Crooks And Liars. Digby has been particularly devastating lately.
And today, Joe Klein is pretty much exposed, though still writing. No one thinks of him as a liberal pundit. At least I hope not.
Similarly, the exposure of the WaPo Ed Board generally, and Fred Hiatt in particular, has been important work by the blogs.
By the same token, great work in the Media is now recognized. E.J. Dionne now gets the respect he richly deserves. And Gail Collins. And Dana Priest. And Murray Waas. And Knight Ridder.
And don't think bloggers are immune. We get hit all the time too. In a way, bloggers have been used to this type of scrutiny from the beginning and we are better able to deal with it and correct our mistakes. So far, the pundits only seem to get all huffy. Will they learn? I doubt it to be honest.
But the bottom line is ONE of the purposes of blogs is this - expose the BS. Joe Klein's BS has been exposed. Score one for us.