Bloggers drive the media agenda

In today’s Washington Post, Howard Kurtz wrote that

Bloggers on the left and right increasingly drive media coverage by turning up the volume on questions until they are difficult to ignore. Sometimes they are right, as when they questioned what CBS’s Dan Rather said were National Guard documents in a 2004 report on President Bush’s military service that led to Rather’s ouster as the network’s anchor.

He could have amplified his point by adding, “Or drove Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott from office for praising the racist presidential campaign of Jesse Helms” or “Unseated Senator George Allen for calling a videographer ‘macaca.'” Unfortunately he went on to cover the “on the other hand” angle, by citing mistakes made by staffers for the New Republic and National Review… two old media organizations.