Agincourt and Bloggerdom

This post from Belmont Club suggests that the "60 Minutes" forgery fiasco is an inflection point like the arrival of the long bow on the medieval battlefield. I think this is an especially fruitful analogy-- one worth pursuing further.

Agincourt, along with Crecy and Poitiers, underline the fact that a victory can be overwhelming without being decisive. the English bowmen ruled the battlefield but England lost the Hundred Years War.

As noted below, that is precisely the problem that bloggers face vis-a-vis the MSM. No matter how many stories we debunk, they still possess the bigger megaphone. If they want, they can usually ignore the criticism because they know that our readership is smaller that their circulation/viewership. They still get to frame the story. Finally they get the last word as the Boyd/Powerline matter demonstrated.

This could change over time. Their megaphone is less powerful than it was five years ago. Their credibility is probably lower than they believe. Their ability to frame an issue is no longer unchallenged.

Two questions remain. First, how many media outlets are smart enough to break from the herd and go after the underserved segments of the market? Second, can blogs dramatically increase their readership? Can we get on the radar of the non-news junkies.