Argument across the internet about fraud in the 2004 US elections has taken the leap from the blogosphere straight into the White House press room. (The debate is only about 2 years overdue, but, hey, it’s better late than never.)

In its 15 June issue, Rolling Stone published an article by Robert F Kennedy Jr that breaks down the evidence pointing toward the conclusion the Ohio vote was rigged. Kennedy lists pages of his findings, from Ohio’s purging of voter records, to Ohio’s Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell’s questionable ties to the Bush administration, to a lack of voting machines in democratic districts, to the statistical impossibility Bush won the election fairly. More than 700,000 people visited Rolling Stone’s web site to read the story.

Immediately, chatter in both liberal and conservative blogs exploded. While many bloggers lauded the article, the online magazine Salon jumped into the frey with a story condemning Kennedy’s sources of evidence.

Eventually, the mainstream media woke up and realized, with so many people discussing the issue online, the subject might deserve some attention. So, the New York Times devoted an entire column to the article in its 12 June issue. Reporters also began confronting White House press secretary Tony Snow with questions about the fraud allegations.

This serves as a good example of blogs pushing important news stories into the mainstream press. It is likely without the widespread debate online, traditional news outlets would have been content to leave the topic to Rolling Stone and its liberal base of readers. Instead, their influence propelled the story into the awareness of millions more.