Well, Felix Salmon is a Reuters employee. Just because he's a blogger doesn't mean he's independent of big media companies and their conflicts. (I'm not pointing to any wrongdoing or turpitude on Salmon's part, just observing that an inflated claim is being made for his independence.)

If bloggers play a useful role in this kind of situation (and I think they do) it's not because "they are often more free of conflicts of interest" but because they're building a personal brand rather than contributing to an institutional brand, and that gives them a higher risk tolerance: they get more payoff from a big scoop, and they don't answer to editors whose incentives tend toward minimizing embarrassment.