Young bloggers, like the ones I see here both posting and commenting, are training themselves to be citizen journalists, and many are remarkably more conscious about citing sources and posting links to support their arguments, than are the old-school journalists who populate the mainstream media. This I think is the true revolutionary power of the blogosphere: its ability to better inform the public by encouraging independent research and a peer mediated feedback system that quickly challenges those who do not support their views with facts. To be sure, there are many here simply flame (I won’t name names), but many more who present well reasoned, sometimes rational arguments (depending of course on which side they’re debating {grin}).