How the blogosphere is changing, and impacting journalism nationally - and locally here in Sacramento...

The "Hogue Show" has been blessed with some very intelligent listeners who, after meeting with me on a Saturday morning at Brookfield's in Sacramento, have created their own 'blogger's alliance' patterned after the "Hogue Blog", called the Western Alliance.

The likes of the Hogue Blog, the ever insightful Sacto Dan, the bold Roseville Conservative, the Fetching Jan, the Right Side Blog the morally correct Uncommon Truth , and today's hero, the Conservative Schooler, are changing the way 'news' is being reported and featured for Sacramento!

With talk radio and the connection of the local blogs, the blogosphere broke the "Lockyer Art Debate" wide open last week. The Conservative Schooler describes the chronology:

This is not the first time Stephen Pearcy has been in the news. Last February he put up a display in front of his Sacramento house of an American soldier hung by a noose with a sign reading "Bush lied, I died." It created a large controversy.

But after that, everything was fairly quiet in Pearcyland. Until last week.

That's when I noticed this post on his blog. He stated that his painting would be displayed at The Attorney General's office beginning that Friday (meaning last Friday now).

I was surprised and found it hard to believe, so a few others who saw the blog and I contacted KTKZ's Eric Hogue to investigate.

He briefly mentioned it last Friday on his show. He then let the story sit for the weekend to see if anything would happen. When it didn't, Eric sent his producer, Mike Murray, to investigate on Monday.

Sure enough, there was a display sitting there in the cafeteria. Eric then called California Republican Party Spokeswoman Karen Hanretty to let her know. She then contacted News 10, which did a story Monday night...that broke the story open. This week many media outlets did stories on the controversy.

Consider this, the Sacramento Bee has offered 'no articles on this national story'. The Bee has printed a satire filled, political cartoon from Rex Babin, and today's editorial defense of Lockyer's art exhibit - but, not a single inch of newspaper space has been afforded this event in the backyard of the Sacramento Bee.

This is why we (Hogue Show, 1380 KTKZ and the Western Alliance) are tooting our own horn today. This story erupted when a 15 year-old blogger, and solid connections inside of the Capitol by a local talk radio, entered the arena of the 'future of journalism' once again. With memories of Dan Rather's memo gate to compare to nationally, the "Locyer Art Exhibit" is a local example of the 'new media'; the blogosphere and talk radio - taking it directly to the people. Congratulations to 'us' all, a little self praise is the elixir of motivation for more to come.