I agree with Nathan. It's silly to compare blogs -- even the most popular one -- with ABC. Markos Moulitsas Zúniga can't own ABC (nor anyone else at any point of the left end of the political spectrum), but he started a website that has allowed him to share thoughts with millions more people than he could have even dreamt of doing so without one. Obviously, it would be better to own ABC than have a website (even DailyKos), but we don't have money to buy a media giant like that (it would be a huge struggle to buy even very brief ad time on it if you stand to the left of Democrats) -- hence the necessity of alternative media.
And if you think about how many people you know and how often you email or talk to them, the ability to reach 2% of Americans wouldn't seem shabby. That 2%, I'm sure, are connected, by email or face-to- face interaction, with the other 98%. Almost anyone (excepting congenital recluses) probably has at least 100 friends, family members, co-workers, and acquaintances she talks to regularly.
Yoshie Furuhashi <http://montages.blogspot.com> <http://monthlyreview.org> <http://mrzine.org> * Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: <http://montages.blogspot.com/2005/07/mahmoud- ahmadinejads-face.html>; <http://montages.blogspot.com/2005/07/chvez- congratulates-ahmadinejad.html>; <http://montages.blogspot.com/ 2005/06/iranian-working-class-rejects.html>