Blogosphere not credible?

Stephen Baker of BusinessWeek explained the blogosphere to Steven Straight following Straight’s comment on Heather Green’s post warning that the blogosphere is losing credibility.

Stephen on the blogosphere’s credibility:

If you take a walk around the block and come across a group of raving harebrains, do you worry that the credibility of the street is at risk? If you’re like me, you figure you ran into the wrong crowd. Maybe next stroll you should try a different neighborhood. But the point is that it’s the people you run into that have or lack credibility. The street, like the blogosphere, just happens to be where you find them.

And on Straight’s allegation that the blogosphere is filling up with boring or stupid blogs:

The great thing about the blog world is that unlike libraries or book stores, it never fills up. There’s room for everyone. And if even 1% of the blogs is worth reading, it’s still a gold mine. (And you can bet that marketers and social scientists will squeeze some interpretive value out of those other 99%.)

The bologosphere is credible as all get out. Put something out there that’s off base. People, seen by thousands, will jump all over you. More credible than the offline world.