FIRST THEY BUILT KOS UP, now they want to tear him down. TNR’s The Plank notes a lot of stuff that’s coming out about Kos, Jerome Armstrong, etc. You can read the New York Times blog item here for the moment, and there’s a piece in the Post, too. And Mickey Kaus has thoughts. (But beware the name-similarity-based hostility!)

Is this a big deal? I’m not sure it ought to be. Blogs are a low-trust environment, and readers should be judging bloggers by what they say and how well they back it up, not by their credentials. On the other hand, it’s obvious that some blog readers are, well, not that bright and will do what they’re told without even following a link. (“Poor, uneducated, and easily led?”) But I think those are the exception, not the rule.

Still, for my bottom-line take, a suggestion that political consultants have a history of talking things up for personal gain seems less-than-earthshaking to me. Am I wrong here?

UPDATE: Don Surber says that I’m wrong.

Meanwhile, Dan Riehl is offering to undercut the competition.

MORE: Hmm, a growing chorus seems to think I’m wrong here. I’m sticking by my guns, though. And I really don’t think it’s fair to put Jerome Armstrong in the same category as Jason Leopold, Jeff Gannon, or Ben Domenech, as Surber does.