How bloggers can produce improved transparency

Point-counter-point. If the press were smart, it would learn how to utilize this phenomenon to get their investigations done. Baiting the blogs might be one way, though this would show up shortly. Main scene would be to include blogs as a source of data - publishing their findings in some sort of daily column: best content would win...

AlterNet: MediaCulture: Gannon and the Bloggers

In the blogosphere, it's often asked, on both the left and right, "Why can't the mainstream media get to the bottom of these scandals like the blogs sometimes do?" Of course, one of the reasons is, they are simply too timid. But I understand another part of the answer now: No single news outlet has anywhere near the army of workers who toil, unpaid, at odd hours, for the larger blogs. To compete in this regard, Gannett would have to shut down some of its local papers and put their news staffs to work for USA Today. Then USA Today could throw a battalion of reporters at a hot issue – like some blogs now can, and do.