“The Web is far and away the most important development in journalism — and almost every other aspect of life — since I finished school and started working,” he went on. “When Microsoft hired me to put out what became Slate, the economy and the immediacy were what appealed to me about the Internet. Imagine: there were tiny businesses in suburban shopping malls that could ‘publish’ the equivalent of The New Republic (where I then worked) and it would cost less than $10,000 a year.”

Since those days, the Web has become an even more wide-open frontier. “Politically, 2006 is definitely the Year of the Blogs,” in Kinsley’s view. “Many if not most political candidates have their own (in most cases written by an aide, no doubt). And independent bloggers are now standing by 24/7 to catch a politician out.”