For years those of us who defended Matt Drudge against his more unhinged critics would grind our teeth when people would say “Oh you heard that on Drudge” when they really meant “You found the link on Drudge.” Obviously Drudge did real reporting. But as an Ur-blogger much of his stuff was merely links — and that remains the case now. But by calling attention to a wire story he could move it to the top of the media chatter. I remember when Alec Baldwin issued a statement condemning some “Drudge story” when really all Matt did was link to an interview in (I believe) a German magazine.

I predict we’ll hear a similar refrain more and more from the MSM. “Oh, you just heard that on a blog….” This isn’t new (long before the pajamehedeen Krugman was calling Sullivan’s site “too vile to read”), but I think it will get more intense.