Charles Johnson, of Little Green Footballs, has an important post exposing the extent of the MSM agenda to discredit the blogosphere — apparnetly on the theory that those who expose their agenda must be involved in a vast right wing consiracy.

The concept propounded by Hillary Clinton has really taken hold of a lot of minds, despite its laughable implausibility to anyone who has ever met more than two bloggers. The entire reason for starting a blog is to speak one's own mind in a publishing   environment you yourself control. Herding cats is a lot easier than controlling bloggers. They are likely to start fisking the wold be conspirator.

Read the whole thing — it's not long. But I can't resist his concluding paragraphs:

I had a telephone conversation with the author of the LA Times hit piece (Peter Wallsten) last week, and he asked me several times if I knew who 'Buckhead' was (no), or if I had been in contact with anyone from the RNC (no), or if I knew of any other bloggers who had been in contact with the RNC (no). His agenda was clear even then.

Here's another interesting fact. I've now spoken to at least a dozen newspapers, and had my words quoted many times. In every conversation I've made sure to point out that I've voted Democratic my whole life, but that I now support President Bush. Not one of these papers thought this was noteworthy enough to print, and with the publication of this LA Times smear job we see why: it doesn't fit their program.

Thomas Lifson  9 19 04