Several commenters have made statements to the effect that blogs are only good for analysis of information served up by media outlets. More or less true at present, though in many cases unreported information is available to anyone with a keyboard, a library card, access to multiple (competing) media sources, or relevant expertise.

But there is nothing that prevents bloggers from developing/hiring the capability to get their own information. Freelance information gatherers exist already – finding good ones may take some trial-and-error, but if enough bloggers and blog readers really want more information about [whatever], money can be made to flow to the investigation of that story.

There is every reason to believe that blogs can do this more effectively and efficiently than standard media outlets currently do.

This is because:

1) Expert analysis is available virtually around the clock. This allows new information to be painted into the overall picture efficiently and in real-time, allowing information gathering to be focused on the currently most relevant information.

2) Coverage is demand-driven. Stories covered are stories in which people actually are interested.

You could even consider those who pay for the investigation to be owners of the story – it could be sold to the big media (of course, then the motivation is profit, not desire for information itself, but the paradigm is a big tent). Would there be resistance? Sure, at first, but if the interest is widespread some media outlet will jump ship, and the wall will start to crumble.