And in 2002, then-senator Trent Lott made a pro-segregationist remark at a birthday dinner for venerable former Dixiecrat senator Strom Thurmond. While it was largely ignored by the mainstream media, which treated it as a minor tidbit, it was picked up by two major liberal blogs: Talking Points Memo and Eschaton. A few days later, the New York Times began covering the story, and two weeks later, Lott stepped down. Blogs exemplified the FOSS maxim “given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow,” though in this case, inadequate reporting by the mainstream media, not a computer programming “bug,” was what was being overcome by a helpful group of citizens.

Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, loc. 106