On yet another occasion, Palin referenced “bored, anonymous, pathetic bloggers who lie to annoy me.”

In fairness to the former vice presidential candidate, she has every right to be angry with some bloggers. She and her family have endured scurrilous attacks, including one from a liberal blogger who “broke” the bogus story of her divorce. Worse yet, right after her nomination as John McCain’s running mate, Andrew Sullivan of The Atlantic invented a new type of “birtherism” when he went on a bizarre and misguided quest to prove Trig was not really Palin’s baby. Sullivan went so far as to demand a paternity test.

On the other hand, it was blogger Adam Brickley (my former intern) who began the “Draft Sarah Palin” blog — and was widely credited with helping to bring her, then an obscure governor from a distant state, to the attention of the McCain campaign. One could argue that Palin owes her fame to a blogger.

According to Maegan Carberry, who has been both a mainstream reporter at the Chicago Tribune and a blogger at Huffington Post, part of the problem is a failure to distinguish between the different types of bloggers: “Are we talking about the Josh Marshalls or Erick Ericksons? Are we talking about the Chris Cillizzas? Are we talking about the proverbial kid in PJs in his parent’s basement?” she asks. “I appreciate the need to establish a trusted brand, which is harder for individuals than decades-old institutions.”