Thank goodness for media pundits!

I like Michael Barone a lot, but sometimes he's a bit too coy:

My theory: The news media, much of it heavily biased, has been a more effective Bush opponent than Kerry and the Democrats. That's why both Kerry and John Edwards in debates urged voters to remember what they've been seeing on television.

Without the broadcast media and the vast majority of print, Bush would be 20 points ahead. The good news is that talk radio and the internet are making inroads into the consciousness of the nation. The old media have tried ignoring, then dismissing, then just dissing them, but they're going to have to take them into account in the future. No blogger is going to threaten the business of the NYTimes, as much as that is devoutly to be wished, but it will never have the unquestioned confidence of anybody but NPR and CBS from now on.