HOW BLOGS INFLUENCED THE FOLEY STORY

ABC News was the first traditional media outlet to report explicit instant messages between former Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., and under-aged congressional pages, but an Internet blog broke the story almost a week earlier.

The Stop Sex Predators Now blog posted suggestive e-mails about Foley on Sept. 24, after several earlier posts charging him with inappropriate conduct. The blog's role in exposing the controversy raises questions that traditional journalists and experts have been asking about the relationship between blogs and the Fourth Estate.

Few bloggers have broken national stories. Matt Drudge was the first to report about Monica Lewinsky in 1998, and FreeRepublic.com discredited documents that CBS used in a 2004 story about President Bush's military service.

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