Most ONEList readers no doubt recall the kefuffle that led to the firing/resignation of FEMA Director Michael Brown right after Hurricane Katrina. The trigger event that was the fact that "Brownie's" last job had been a rather undistinguished tenure as the head of the International Arabian Horse Association.

What you might not know is that that fact emerged out of a local Seattle political blog, and catapulted into international headlines in three days. Brown was out on the street a week later. David Goldstein, who blogs at HorsesAss.org, tells the story

The story of Brown, the horse show commissioner cum FEMA chief, adds much needed color and context to accounts of the Bush administration’s disastrous disaster relief efforts, and its haphazard approach to political appointments in general. And the story of the story – how an angry email from a longtime HorsesAss reader moved international headlines – is a vivid example of how the blogosphere can amplify the voice of the people, so that any one citizen can speak as loud or louder than the most obstreperous talking head.

Truth is, I didn’t really even know what I had. I rarely cross-post to Daily Kos, but since this was a national issue, and I was angry, I thought, what the hell. My original headline was a profane rant, and the first few comments insisted that this was too important a diary to be lost due to a non-descriptive headline. I followed their advice, changed the headline, went to bed… and awoke the next morning to find the story featured on Kos, and the traffic flooding in. Then the calls and emails from the MSM [mainstream media] started coming, and I knew we were going to move headlines.

So if any of you out there believe that you cannot make a difference, let this be lesson to the contrary. A single email from a horse breeder to the proprietor of an oddly named local blog provided the angle the MSM needed to expose the Bush administration cronyism that doomed thousands of Katrina’s victims to a week of unimaginable – and unnecessary – suffering, and which may have condemned thousands of others to an untimely death.

Some lessons that we think you should draw from this:

1) Blogs have a tremendous amount of power to influence the frames of fast-developing news stories. And in certain circumstances, they can "break" facts that emerge from the concerned public.

2) "People who know things" (like Brownie's sorry job history) and other whistleblowers are often willing to "come forward" to bloggers.

3) There is a rapidly-evolving media ecosystem that includes hundreds of local or small blogs, up to larger national blogs like DailyKos and into the mainstream media. Stories can move in both directions, because many journalists now read blogs regularly.

4) Advocacy organizations should think more about how to cultivate relationships with bloggers -- or how to become bloggers themselves. Our friends at Green Media Toolshed have some thoughts on this topic, too.