rise of the blogs?

Andrew Sullivan on CNN

"Host Howard Kurtz: Welcome back to RELIABLE SOURCES. A couple of years ago, most Americans didn't know what a blog was. Today there are tens of thousands of these weblogs, most of them one-man or woman operations, fueled by an uncontrollable desire to hold forth on politics, entertainment, sports, sex.

I sat down recently with three of the top practitioners, Andrew Sullivan, who dishes daily at AndrewSullivan.com, Ana Marie Cox, better known as the Wonkette, and Dan Kennedy of The Boston Phoenix. I started by asking Kennedy whether bloggers are claiming too much credit on stories like the CBS debacle over President Bush's National Guard record.

Kennedy: Oh, sure. Absolutely. I mean, blogging's a fascinating phenomenon. But you know, Technarati.com reports that there is something like five million plus blogs out there. Well, how many of them really matter? Perhaps more than a dozen, but certainly less than 100."

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