HOWARD FINEMAN ANNOUNCES THE DEATH of the mainstream-media-as-political-party, an entity that he says came into being when Walter Cronkite announced against the Vietnam War and ended this year when it turned out that nobody trusted them anymore: “It’s hard to know now who, if anyone, in the ‘media’ has any credibility.”

Fineman says that “Blogger Nation” has arisen. One example of that is Stefan Sharkansky and SoundPolitics.com, which is covering the Washington recount in a way that Fineman’s colleagues are not. Some people have noticed:

Meet Stefan Sharkansky — “The Shark.”

His efforts show how one small blog — a Web log site with updated entries — can deliver quite a sharp bite.

I was interested in knowing more about Sharkansky because if a new election is ordered, he just might be remembered as the guy who made a huge difference.

More evidence, if it were needed, that Fineman is right.

UPDATE: More evidence still — driving the Insta-Daughter to school just now, I heard an NPR story on the Washington State recount. Nothing at all on the allegations of fraud in King County, but a lot on Democrat Christine Gregoire’s admirable qualities. She was the first in her family to go to college!