Dan Bricklin points to Chris Daly's Are Bloggers Journalists? Let's Ask Thomas Jeffeson. Here's a snippet that Dan pulls out of the article:
Common Sense and other pamphlets like it were precisely the kind of political journalism that Jefferson had in mind when he insisted on a constitutional amendment in 1790 to protect press freedom — anonymous, highly opinionated writing from diverse, independent sources. In historical terms, today's bloggers are much closer in spirit to the Revolutionary-era pamphleteers than today's giant, conglomerate mainstream media.
(Via Joho the Blog)