The Tweety Effect: Why Political Blogs Matter

I said it before: without blogs, Chris Matthews aka Tweety never would have apologized for his sexist comments about Hillary. It took Media Matters to document a history of Matthews's sexism, but the rest of us disseminated the information. Anyway, I'm not the only one who noticed the blog phenomena at work here:

When Chris Matthews' long-winded monologue at the opening of the January 17 Hardball program eventually touched down with an apology to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) for the way the cable talker had been treating the candidate on the air, the moment represented an unmistakable victory for the liberal blogosphere.

By not only getting Matthews to apologize, but by also forcing the rest of the press -- post-New Hampshire -- to back off its, at-times, overtly sexist coverage of a prominent Democratic contender, the blogs have already had more impact on how the traditional press covers this presidential campaign than they did during the entire 2004 White House run.

Indeed, the way the netroots and the (mostly) online progressive infrastructure have grown in the last four years in terms of battling media malfeasance should give conservatives pause. (Click here to see the anguish and anger the netroots' successful push against Matthews caused right-wing activists.)

--Mb