Brian Anderson, continued

PowerLine continued its interview with "South Park Conservatives" author Brian Anderson today. Excerpt:

About 12 percent of Americans are now reading political blogs—26 million people using a medium that didn’t really exist five years ago. It’s an amazing information mutation. The blogosphere may be helping the Right indirectly, too, in that the rise of a left-wing presence on the Web is pushing the Democratic Party to the Left, hurting its electoral chances nationally.

The blogosphere has helped shape our national politics since 9/11. The cancellation of the CBS documentary "The Reagans"; Howell Raines’s downfall at the Times; Eason Jordan’s departure from CNN; the Swifties; Trent Lott stepping down as Senate majority leader; Richard Clarke’s attempted takedown of the Bush administration; of course Rathergate—the list of national controversies is long and growing in which the blogosphere has played a key role. The liberal media has been the big loser to date,...but the long-term influence of blogs will keep all news sources on their toes....I think...that over time we could see an improvement in reporting and argument. Imagine being at Fox in 2005, with so many on the left trying to bring you crashing down. You’re going to make damn sure you don’t air something seriously wrong, or if you do, correct it quick.

Blogs certainly helped John Dean raise remarkable amounts of money via the Internet, altho he wasn't able to turn that into major showings in the primaries for long. Still, the Internet will be used by all sides in the future...if the Federal Government in its infinite wisdom doesn't stop it:

PL: Do you think that the Empire will strike back against those of us exploiting the freedom of the Internet? What threats are there on the horizon?
BA: I am very worried about the extension of onerous FEC rules to cover blogs, as obviously are bloggers themselves. And John Kerry just a few weeks back was lamenting the repeal of the Fairness Doctrine. A New York congressman, Maurice Hinchey, wants to restore it. Doing so would obliterate talk radio.

What was that yesterday? Ah, yes: ppl so afraid of freedom they work to destroy it before they even know what good it can bring. Bring back the so-called Fairness Doctrine because it might help Democrats in the short term. There are Republicans who will help, too: they want content controls (read Censorship) of cable TV content. Censoring the airwaves is at least constitutionally sound (tho terrible policy) because the Feds unfortunatly own the airwaves. Censoring cable TV clearly is abridgement of the 1st Amendment. But then I thought that was the case with McCain-Feingold, and the Supreme Court disagreed with me.