FRANK CAGLE LOOKS AT BLOGS in the Tennessee Governor’s Race:

Blogs will play an important role in this election by default. Over the next year, traditional news organizations will do the occasional “take out” on the race. (The News Sentinel had a nice piece a couple of Sundays ago on Republicans and conservatism.) But day in and day out the gossip, the trivia, the minutiae, and the obscure details that thrill political junkies will be found on the blogs.

That is as it should be, I suppose. Blogs can provide information that is not general enough for mass media. That will be especially true for special-interest issue blogs. No doubt SayUncle will keep us informed on where the candidates are on gun issues, for example.

Blogs do not, by and large, have the reach of traditional news organizations. At least right now. But they do have a great deal of influence with political insiders. And they are often read by newspaper editors and television and radio news directors. Thus they often set the tone of campaign coverage. They can get the “talk right” for a candidate, or reveal the candidate to be a bumbling fool. This campaign, they may set the storylines that play out in the course of the campaign.

That sounds about right to me.