(My co-defendant) Jonathan Kay writes:
Whatever happens on October 14, the 2008 election will be remembered as — among other things — the collective coming out party for Canada’s blogosphere. Amateur Web scribblers have been making their mark on Canadian politics for years, but never on the scale we’ve witnessed this month.
(…)
Other Liberal-friendly outlets were similarly uninterested. But the blogosphere wouldn’t let the issue go. “The Tory war room could have been on holiday that day,” a senior insider on Harper’s election team told me. “Things would still have gone as they did. And so fast. The whole cycle — including Dion’s ever-changing lines of defence — happened in less than [a day and a half].” (…)
…there will also be synergy — with bloggers doing the sifting and stirring the outrage, while the broadcast and print journalists perform the equally important job of forcing the issue during scrums, interviews and press conferences.
The result: a win-win for everyone — except, perhaps, 9/11 conspiracy theorists looking to get into politics.
