BusinessWeek has an overview of Eason Jordan’s resignation as chief news executive of CNN. To me this episode shows not just the power of the blogosphere, but also the need for it to recognize and understand that power. With authority comes responsibility. It’s an issue of maturity.

BusinessWeek feels that with more voices the blogosphere will become self-regulating:

"Is there a way to
ensure that the growing blogosphere embodies our highest ideals and not
our worst fears? Jump in. The more people who add sensible voices to
the ongoing debates, the less power the angry fringe will exert.
Responsible bloggers on all sides should keep busier than ever policing
other blogs, documenting untruths and exaggerations. The best way to
gain a measure of control over this flood of information is to
contribute to it."

I’m not sure this is how populations normally behave, since it assumes no conversation between the individuals, no ‘group think’ or crowd mentality. It assumes we’ll step in to intervene whenever we see an injustice. Is it possible that instead of our highest ideals, we are left with the lowest common denominator?

Meantime, I’m sure there will continue to be bloggers who wish to collect the scalps of reporters, under the guise of justice, and others who see this a vigilanteism. We can expect this tension to rumble and more of these stories to break this year.