Dave Winer is full of it.

I've seen people doing the same thing fifteen years ago on Usenet.
Something else he said would be a wild optimistic prediction one year ago I'd been doing for a decade.

Somebody needs to get Winer away from the blogs and give him a good education in history of communications.

Take heart. How many of the Globe's half-million readers will actually READ any given story in the paper, especially if it (1) is not on the sports pages, (2) is not particularly local and (3) does not involve a violent crime?
OTOH, how many people will actually surf to your blog and NOT read what you've posted.
The numbers may be bad, but not all that bad.

Lis - Right you are. I was "there" too :-(. But being a bubble-blower means ignoring all the popped bubbles.

Bob - Of course not every reader reads every story. And one volunteer is worth ten conscripts. But a hundred conscripts? A thousand? There's a point where sheer numbers are simply overwhelming.
Moreover, the few dedicated readers are the ones least likely to be affected by a media misquote - it's reaching all the people who might be misled which is nigh-impossible.
Even with a blog :-(