O artigo, republicado na central progressista CommonDreams, elenca didaticamente as diferenças entre mainstream media e os blogs - num tom não exatamente amistoso.

The difference, Matt, is that we are independent actors, not part of a small set of multi-billion dollar corporations. The difference is that we are not under the constraints of making a 15% profit. The difference is that we are a distributed information system, whereas MSM is like a set of stand-alone mainframes. The difference is that we can say what we damn well please.

If we were the mainstream media (perhaps better thought of as corporate media), we would care if you threatened to stop reading us. Because although we might be professional news people, we would have the misfortune to be working for corporations that are mainly be about making money.

Se a declaração de Haughey chama a atenção, é pelo seu currículo; Matt foi programador da Pyra.Labs, a "mãe" do Blogger, e viu a blogosfera de fato nascer; fundou o MetaFilter; e hoje, é diretor da Creative Commons. Sobre a polêmica, ele replicou o artigo de Cole usando o "não-me-levem-tão-a-sério".

I feel like a person that told a knock-knock joke at a party and in response got a 15 minute lecture on the nature of door design, acoustics, and various wood grains that affect the sound of knocks from a materials engineer that specializes in forest and forestry products.

Pelo menos ele teve o bom humor de publicar em uma página os e-mails que recebeu contestando-o. (Bem, nem tanto; o nome da página é "freaks".)