Fox News Take On Political Bloggers

Web journals like Joshua Marshall's have become indispensable this campaign season: They mobilize supporters, question traditional media coverage and feed the insatiable appetites of political junkies.

A powerful new networking tool for the politically plugged-in and hangers-on, the constant online chatter broadens campaign discourse and accelerates the news cycle.

Such journals, known as blogs, may not be doing much to sway undecided voters, but analysts say they strongly impact the media, campaign consultants and activists.

"A blog's not going to have the same reach as a Washington Post or USA Today or an AP article," said Cameron Barrett, a longtime blogger now with Wesley Clark's campaign. "But it does have reach, and people consistently go to online blogs to find information that traditional media ignore."

Consider Marshall, who raised $4,500 from readers and lit out for New Hampshire, laptop in hand. Marshall believes blogs can collectively be as influential as talk radio; his daily audience is about 45,000, comparable to a medium-sized newspaper.