Freedom of the Press belongs to those who own a blog

Basil’s recent comments about nuclear waste disposal in Nevada makes me wonder whether he’s been thinking about free speech and blogging. Peggy Noonan has:

Let us hold high a single sparkler to honor those American institutions that, in this interesting year, did not flounder or fail…

Blogging. The 24-7 opinion sites that offer free speech at its straightest, truest, wildest, most uncensored, most thoughtful, most strange. Thousands of independent information entrepreneurs are informing, arguing, adding information. Imagine if we’d had them in 1776: “As I wrote in yesterday’s lead item on SamAdams.com, my well meaning cousin John continues his grammatical nitpicking with Jefferson (link requires registration) ‘Inalienable,’ ‘unalienable,’ whatever. Boys, let’s fight. Start the war.” Blogs may one hard day become clearinghouses for civil support and information when other lines, under new pressure, break down.

Howard Greenstein agrees with Noonan and expresses belief that blogs are a new (and potentially better informed) Press.