There's a storm a brewin'.

Not really. But there's discussion: weblogs vs journalism.

Short answer: journalism is good for news. And you can get some good views from it as well.

Weblogs are good for semi-community. They're very good for views (when the author has something worth saying). They're good at breaking certain stories (eg, the Seattle earthquake on MeFi) and breaking others open (the what's-her-face (Casey Nicole?) fabrication uncovered on MeFi). They're good at adding relevant data to the system. Steven has discussions with other people that often evolve in terms of data or ideas.

Weblogs will replace traditional journalism for Op/Ed/Views. Michael Moore's website is like that. I want to go and read a specific thinker. I want her to interact with others (georgewill, andrewsullivan, peggynoonan, etc.).

They can have their news. We are the thing that will replace them, and we are now.