Andrew Sullivan makes the following comment in Are Weblogs Changing our Culture?, a dialog between him and fellow blogger Kurt Andersen:

The great journalistic virtue of blogs is related to [their personal, almost narcissistic quality], I think. Yes, they're fantastic fact-checkers and media monitors. You can't simply make stuff up if you're executive editor of the New York Times and hope no one will notice. I love the fact that the self-important pooh-bahs at 43rd Street now have to worry that they'll be corrected on a daily basis by a bunch of former nobodies. Go, Instapundit. It helps defuse the self-serving pomposity of much of the journalistic clerisy.

There are several important points here. First of all, the idea that blogs actually force the mainstream media to be more correct is a unique and engaging one. While lots of other journalists and commentators are hung up on the idea that blogs can never be as credible as mainstream news because they lack a rigorous fact-checking progress, Sullivan focuses on the net result, which is that real journalists must be even more accurate precisely because the eyes of a million bloggers are upon them. Perhaps the traditional media elite got so stuck on proving the inferiority of blogs that they failed to realize the effect that blogs are having on newsrooms across the country.

Sullivan also points out that this upheaval has been led largely by "a bunch of former nobodies." Not only are blogs forcing changes in the mainstream media, but the charge is being led by a group that has only recently found its voice in the matters of regular old Americans. If this change doesn't represent democracy in its very essence, I don't know what does.

Lastly, Sullivan implies a certain distaste for the seemingly unearned authority that the traditional media elite has lavished upon itself. The very fact that the popularity of blogging has exploded in recent years is a testament to this sentiment; people are tired of having the news forced upon them by an institution that has bestowed its merit as a source for information upon itself, and they are ready to take matters into their own hands. The fact that the "self-important pooh-bahs" are actually listening shows just how powerful blogging can be as a tool that allows a collective sentiment to produce real change.