This weekend the Times addressed the controversy sparked when Barack Obama extended an invitation to conservative, evangelical pastor Rick Warren to deliver a public prayer at Obama's inauguration. According to the Times, Obama is “facing criticism this time from liberal and gay rights groups.”

Technically, that's accurate. But the Times went out of its way to ignore the fact that the Obama/Warren story was born in the blogosphere. The Times itself would not have covered the story if it weren't for the cackles raised online. The blogosphere made the story. Period. Yet not one blogger is quoted in the Times article and the liberal blogosphere isn't even mentioned.

Instead, the Times, like so many traditional news outlets over the years which have tip-toe around the blogs and been reluctant to acknowledge online's ability to create news, played dumb and pretended the Warren story--and specifically, the outrage expressed on the left that made the pastor pick newsworthy--simply materialized out of thin air. It didn't. The liberal bloggers made that story and the Times chose to play dumb.