On the way to the emergency room to remove a two-inch nail from the bottom of my black and white Converse sneakers, I chatted with my dad about media bias and the blogosphere.

Dad thought that media bias was much more a problem ten or fifteen years ago, but FOX news, talk radio, and the blogs have balanced things out a bit. There are more people in the media tent than there used to be.

The old man is very taken with the blogging. While I was getting the nail removed from my foot by the cruelest of doctors, Dad read an article by Andrew Sullivan in Time magazine, and the conversation continued on the ride home. Both of us like the idea that anyone can start up a blog and potentially make a difference. The little guy in his pajamas bent over his keyboard at 2:00am changing the course of history. Blogger as gadfly. I’m not sure how accurate that image is, but we liked it. Could have been the pain killers.

Dad was also shocked at “strong language” of some of the bloggers. He questioned whether Kos should really refer to Little Green Footballs as “a steaming, pile of shit”.

In contrast to Sullivan’s triumphant article on blogging, Henry at Crooked Timber has questioned how much the blogosphere really broke that story, he suggests that the White House could have a shill in the blogosphere, and that blogging could get coopted by the mainstream media and political officials. Interestingly enough, he also writes about how his words were misconstrued by a journalist. Last week, I had a post about giving lousy soundbite.

Trading advice about how to talk to journalists? The blogosphere is getting more professional by the second. I’m going to have to get a better pair of pajamas.