JERRY BOWLES at Best of the Blogs has a great comeback to Adam Cohen's reform lecture to bloggers.

First of all, most blogs--even the biggest ones (Josh Marshall excepted)--don't do their own reporting; they react to and pick apart published material from the MSM and each other. Blogs provide an extra layer of analysis, a different lens or filter, but they rarely generate the original information. We parse, therefore we are. In transparency, there is sometimes truth. Mainstream reporters do interviews and gather the "facts;" our role is tell them how and why they got it wrong.

More importantly, blogs wear their prejudices like badges of honor. Agendas are not hidden and that produces a kind of honesty that you don't get from MSM types who are pretending to be unbiased. And because most blogs make no money, they can't be intimidated by advertisers and corporate or nutty religious interests.

Sorry, Adam but the liberating thing about blogging is not having to find something nice to say about Tom DeLay or the Iraq war in the phony pursuit of "balance" or to keep Ayatollahs Dobson and Perkins off my ass. If I wanted to be fair, I'd still be a "real journalist" like you.