Blogging Bombshell

My buddy Patterico is making blogging history this week. He's snagged an interview with a fellow named "Stashiu", who worked at the Guantanamo detention camp, talking to the terrorist prisoners every day. This would be an amazing "get" for the New York Times, but the story is being broken on a blog. If there are blogging Pulitzers, Patterico oughta get one. It's a continuing series; the first part is up and the meaty posts will trickle out all this week.

There have been several recent stories about Gitmo popping up in conservative publications. Rich Lowry at National Review Online had a piece I mentioned the other day, and likewise Mark Steyn and James Taranto have run stories about this. But I think Patterico's is better.

Due to my secret insider connections (I was a guest-blogger at Patterico's for a long time) I've gotten to read the whole series in advance and it's really one of the best things I've read on the subject. (Self-serving disclaimer--I even got to suggest a couple of questions.) I seriously think this will be something that will gain blogs a lot of credibility--especially when you consider Stashiu's reasons for breaking this story on Patterico's blog:

So why did Stashiu agree to speak with me? After all, hadn’t journalists visited Guantánamo? He told me that, of course, they had. So I asked him: why not give his story to Big Media? He said:

I don’t trust them to factually report anything I say. I’ve read you and trust you.

The suspicion of Big Media is, unfortunately, all too common nowadays.

Another advantage, of course, is that Stashiu is a commenter on Patterico's blog. If Patterico dowdifies a quote or paints a scene in an incorrect light, Stashiu can correct him right there. And he's hanging out there so you can ask him questions. He's obviously got limitations about what he can talk about, but it's great unscripted stuff you won't find anywhere else.

I'm not one of those utopian weirdos who thinks that the MSM will wither away as the blogs take over, like Marx thought would happen with the state. There will always be a mainstream media, and I hope it's doing its job well. At the same time, an exclusive like this ought to make a lot of newspapers nervous. Here's Patterico breaking a great story that escaped their grasp and went to an alternative outlet because big media is not trusted. Patterico is writing it up competently and critically. And he's done it in his spare time, in his pajamas if you will, and he's done it for free--you don't even have to fill out a registration screen to read it.

The pressure's on.