At the height of the Ra^therGate scandal last fall, I wrote:

One thing that [Dan] Rather has in common with both Walter Cronkite, and Ted Baxter, another (albeit fictional) ex-CBS employee, is the belief that as a newsman, if he doesn't appear omniscient, he can't succeed. Imagine any blogger saying, "And that's the way it is", as Uncle Walter did every night and expecting his readers to trust him solely based on his word, without the reader following the links and doing his own digging.

No wonder Fox, with its "We report, you decide" motto, and the Blogosphere, with its "we link, you decide" --and probably start your own blog to tell us why if we're wrong [creed]--are pummeling CBS into the ground.

The internet and blogs show us there is a great deal more intelligence, knowledge and perspective among common everyday people than was ever suspected. There are bloggers who make me look like an idiot, but they make me smarter too. And they learn from me. It’s a synergy you cannot get in normal journalism, and this project is a way of exposing more people to that synergy.

For example, The Jawa Report is run by a political scientist. Is he the most brilliant political scientist in the world? Not the most, but he offers a lot. He can educate, yet also learn from, his readers -- and do it in a way not possible before. And Glenn Reynolds is a good law professor, yet he will tell you he has learned from readers and legal bloggers because the channels of communication are open. What we are doing here will open opportunities to explore a universe of ideas that used to be tucked away in editorial pages and obscure corners of academia.

Update: Speaking of Ra^therGate...