Dan Gillmor, the daddy of grassroots independent journalism on the net, has given a seminal speech on the role of blogs in maintaining transparency and independence of journalism. In Dave's words,

The cable and phone companies want to control not just the pipes through which our data moves. They also want to decide what will get delivered, in what order, and at what speed. They haven't pulled this off yet, but they're getting closer every day.

In this age of media consolidation, where newspapers and TV channels are owned by fewer and fewer companies, maintaining a free speech medium like blogs and the internet is imporntant for civil liberties.