The New York Times reports David L. Sifry (founder of the blog search site Technorati) tells us how complicated the blogosphere has become.

According to Sifry mainstream media sites (measured by the number of blogs linking to them) are trouncing news-oriented blogs by a growing margin. Bloggers are linking to the New York Times three times more than they link to blogs. Only four blogs even show up in the top 33 sites at all.

Part of that can be explained by a growing number of news media sites that are providing temporary links to blogs that have already linked to their news stories.

Mainstream Media is Stealing the Blogosphere’s Bandwidth:

On the face of it you would think that is benefitting bloggers. But when you consider it was Dan Rather’s fall from grace that brought attention to the blogosphere, mainstream media is now essentially piggy-backing on our bandwidth so to speak.

By encouraging bloggers to link to their news stories, traffic is being re-routed back again to the mainstream media websites. It’s a vicious cycle where bloggers are the obvious losers.

They’ve effectively hijacked our new-found fame and it’s a very clever strategy when you think of it.

Until more bloggers are able to do the real sleuthing and reporting of the news with boots on the ground we will continue to be relegated to backroom commentators.

Like it or not Bloggers and Mainstream Media have a Symbiotic Relationship:

That might not be a bad thing as the symbiotic relationship between mainstream media and the blogosphere continues to evolve and the lines become even more blurred.

Nevertheless, being in a position of influence instead of doing the actual reporting is not necessarily a bad thing. Just different. And therein lies the real power.

UPDATE: It’s not everyday that Blog Bloke is quoted by the mainstream media. So imagine my surprise when I noticed incoming traffic from CBS News.