Pamphleteers of the Revolution.

I had a busy day yesterday. On top of attending the MTB Learn and Earn, I also sat down and talked to Ann Fisher of the Dispatch. I had called Fisher after her first blogger column ran a short while ago, yet didn't have any bloggers in it. After takling to her we arranged to meet and talk about blogging.

Her second blogging column is now up.

Bloggers appear to love Ohio: its swingstate momentum, its polarized political parties, its urban-versussuburbanversus-rural issues all at odds.

Ohioans should return that love but with a caveat: Reader beware.

Bloggers should not be offended by that, because they intentionally are not geared for general-interest readers. They’re usually on a mission and admittedly represent a narrow point of view. Some sell ads, but they don’t have editors, ombudsmen or paid subscribers. They rarely run corrections.

Blogger Russell Hughlock, of Buckeye State Blog, said credibility is an overrated factor in the success of any medium.

"Some blogs are popular even though they have little credibility, in the way that the National Enquirer has little credibility," he said. "It’s up to the readers to discern for themselves how much credibility to afford a particular blog."

I ended the sentence - and some blogs are popular in the way Time magazine is, and viewed as credible. Readers really do have to discern for themselves.

Their messages come with a few twists, however. When it comes to politics, they take sides but, at the same time might criticize the party they support. That’s the sort of straight talk that middle-of-the-road voters and others thirst for.

I hope that's true, because that is the route to increased relvancy. Being an echo chamber isn't something to aspire to; RABid blog take note

Some bloggers are plants by special-interest organizations, intended only to parrot certain talking points. The Ohio Republican Party, for example, is attuned to the blogosphere in its Web site’s Talking Points, a feature aimed at everyone from bloggers to talk-radio callers to water-cooler babblers.

The pretty polly paroting of talking points is stale and few are paying attention. If right wingers continue down this road they'll marginalize themselves on the road to irrelevancy.

The pamphlets of Revolutionary War days evolved into public newsletters and then newspapers, the backbone of American journalism. Where the blogs take us and their role in this society could be just as crucial to sustaining our democracy. The readers might not know that. Let’s hope the good bloggers get it.

We'll see. Somedays it feels like we are on the front lines, others fighting a reaguard action, and others still sitting in the read cheering on.