Has it occured to anyone that Sullivan may have let “slip” his alleged exile from the pages of the NY Times Magazine not by accident (ha!), nor even out of a desire to improve his reputation and denigrate Howell Raines, but simply to perform a real-life experiment to see just how powerful the blogosphere in general (and his blog in particular) has become?
Sullivan’s always demonstrated a keen interest in the power-o-the-blog, and in its ability to provide a counterweight to Big Media. And so I picture Andrew waking up one day last week, thinking idly about his banishment from the Times, and then the thought occuring to him: “I wonder what would happen if…“
Once he’d gotten that far, I can’t imagine him being able to resist the possibility of finding out whether his little blog provides him a more powerful media soapbox than The New York Times does Raines.
I’m unconvinced that Sullivan has opened this can of worms because he’s seeking any particular outcome, even one as base as just humiliating Raines. I think he’s interested in watching the process play out…