At least not the actual CBS news report that waved around some ancient smoking-gun documents which blogistan’s rightwing myrmidons then leapt into collective action to prove could have been forged hence were forged – what i *do* see, tho, is the start of the playing out, in v.high-stakes style, of the radical shift in Gatekeeper Power first intimated (where else?) in Pop Idol: ” The ‘news object’ can no longer be given sealed attributes in newspaper backrooms,” notes a commentator quoted in this post; and as the poster astutely notes (in re: dan rather not kym marsh but what’s the dif anyway? except KM = better obv): “All of which means this is not just a scandal, but a cultural theatre for it…”
Exactly. Where alt.rock just rolls over and whines abt the crisis-of-valuation implied by the rise of reality-TV talent shows etc, the would-be pol-pundits of the web see an opportunity and effect a stage invasion, to do battle in the arena created by the foregrounding (and sexing up) of the Act of Judgement – and the mainstream media are beginning to fight back, defending their jobs professional skills and values (OK this last bit didn’t happen yet much – but i’m arguing it will). It’s exciting (plus also scary) bcz way more rides on the outcome than the US election, politically, and bcz it’s way harder to see what that outcome might actually be…
[UPDATE: useful examination of the relative “top-downness” of the warblog region of the net, which increases (says this guy) its speed and effectiveness, stage-invasion-wise; Atrios suggests a concrete correlative for the concept of “cultural theatre”]