Do blogs create democracy and foment The Citizen Journalist?

Or are all bloggers just begging the wind?

Here are some sobering numbers reported on The McLaughlin Group over the weekend:

• 140,000 new blogs started each day
• One blog is created every second
• 14 million new blogs are started a year

Is there a point to blogging any longer or will the little people with the small — but important — voices be drowned out by the traditional Big Media sites who will suck all the bandwidth and chew up all the pertinent search returns?

Is the Golden Age of Blogging now dead?