Nikki Finke, Matt Drudge and L.A. Observed together again in the Online Journalism Review, where Mark Glaser contrasts the role of blogs and web sites in spreading the Reagan is dying and John Kerry affair reports.

I decided to follow the trail of two such rumors in their early stages, with the 20/20 vision that hindsight affords. In one case, LA Weekly columnist Nikki Finke had the inside scoop on former President Ronald Reagan's health deteriorating, news she disseminated via e-mail because it was after-hours for the LA Weekly Web staff...

"Frustrated? I was crazed!" Finke said... "All my competitive juices were flowing, like I was back being a wire service reporter. I just kept thinking, 'OK, how do I get this news out?' I have very mixed feelings about blogs. Too many are rants and raves and repositories for incredibly uninformed opinion singularly lacking in rudimentary reporting.

"I've put together a pretty good e-mail list of pretty influential media people, and I figured someone on that list could benefit from knowing what I knew. I guess I did it as a public service, as corny as that sounds. But isn't that what news is about?"

As the OJR story explains, after some back and forth L.A. Observed posted the news first, followed by the Drudge Report.

Previously on L.A. Observed: How Finke got the Reagan news