In the first instance of its kind, the constituency had most of the same inside knowledge that decision-makers had. In a sense, because of the Starr Report, we all found out a little more about the character of our representatives. The last few weeks have seen the deluge of Clinton tell-all books hitting the markets. We read Monica Lewinsky's biography not to hear her story, but just to add a little bit to the larger volume of her deposition. The news is being broken down from the headlines into the component information sources.
Information likes to be free, as they say, and the Internet has given news a whole new set of wings.
I keep some doubts under my belt. It takes only a cursory glance toward muckraker egotists like Matt Drudge to see the Internet's potential for the creation of informational demagogues. Drudge got the Clinton scoop, but nearly every other of his overblown conservative-fueled conspiracy theories blanches under scrutiny. The Net may give us new levels of access, but it also allows fame to fan the flames of uninformed rhetoric. I'll keep logged in for the next 10 years.