BulletProofBlog the blog on crisis communications

In an article published in Broadcasting & Cable Magazine earlier this summer, columnist Marisa Guthrie offered intriguing insight into the future of investigative journalism.

She wrote, "Investigations of the rich and powerful, the multinational corporations and monopoly industries have all but dried up, say a coterie of journalists still trying to ply their trade… While investigations are far from extinct, few can make the case that the scope and number of reports on network news are not but a shadow of what they once were."

Considering the debt that American society owes to the investigative journalists that have - quite literally - changed our world for the better, this seems like an ominous trend to say the least. But where traditional journalists are falling short, bloggers are picking up the slack.

This fundamental shift in the media landscape has been going on since the days of the "Internet' s First Scalp," which was how New York Post columnist John Podhoretz characterized the fall of Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott after a blogger reported on the racially insensitive comments he made at a Strom Thurmond birthday celebration.

It was the bloggers at Powerline - who publicized the detective work of typesetting expert Joseph Newcomer - that debunked documents used by "60 Minutes" in a report about President Bush' s National Guard service.

It was bloggers at The Smoking Gun that followed the paper trail to find out that author James Frey - of Oprah' s Book Club fame - had made up most of his best-selling work of "non-fiction," entitled "A Million Little Pieces."

And it was bloggers at Talking Points Memo that helped expose the U.S. attorneys firing scandal, which ultimately led to the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. TPM received a Polk Award for its investigative work in bringing the U.S. Attorney scandal to light - marking the first time that a publication operating solely online won this prestigious award.

The bloggers are on the charge - and serving notice to any company, country, or public figure that isn' t ready to engage the moment that a citizen journalist has their brand credibility and trust in his or her crosshairs.