A manifesto for blogging?

Fraser Nelson has a new sparring partner. Ed Balls, objecting to a post written by Nelson earlier this morning, has phoned him demanding that he “take that post down” because it called him a liar.

Now, quite apart from the fact that our law enshrines the right of journalists to hold and publish opinions, Nelson’s defence, posted this afternoon, contains a powerful raison d’etre for blogging itself (or, at the very least, political blogging):

If you're reading this, Ed (and I suspect you will be) then we have a serious point to make. Five years ago, you could lie like this on the radio and get away with it. Space is tight in newspapers, no one would devote hundreds of words and graphs - as we did - to expose a lie for what is.

But the world has changed now. Blogging has brought new, hyper scrutiny. Blogs have infinite space, and people with endless energy, to expose political lying - no matter how small. Your claims can be instantly counter-checked, by anyone.

If you stretch the truth, you can be exposed - by anyone. And if you plan to base a whole election campaign on a lie, as you apparently intend to do, then you're in for a rude awakening.

I know who I'm putting my money on in this fight. And it's not the Schools Secretary.