One of the Duke lacrosse case's best-known bloggers came to visit The N&O the other day, and you might be surprised at how cordially he was received.

That is, you'd be surprised if you had been reading KC Johnson's "Durham-in-Wonderland" blog in June 2006, when he zinged The N&O, or a new book, "Until Proven Innocent," in which Johnson and co-author Stuart Taylor Jr. criticize a small part of our coverage. (The book has some errors regarding N&O reporting, which Johnson and I address in our respective blogs.)

Newspapers and independent blogs are supposed to be mortal enemies. But the lacrosse case was a demonstration project for the Internet as a wide-open information environment, one where blogs crisscross with traditional reporting, so we wanted to hear from Johnson.

The Brooklyn College professor, an expert on congressional procedure, said he began blogging on the case in April 2006, a few weeks after an escort service dancer filed a police report saying she'd been raped at a lacrosse team party.

Johnson was drawn in, he said, by his interest in the faculty's response at Duke -- issues involving what he calls "the academy" -- rather than by the sensational aspects of the allegations. Eventually, "Durham-in-Wonderland" and the book became Johnson's scholarly work.

Johnson said Duke lacrosse blogs initially found an audience for a couple of reasons. First, mainstream news media did not reveal the accuser's name (following a longstanding tradition that Johnson himself observed until the case was resolved).

Also, he said, "bad reporting" by some news outlets created an audience that wanted alternative sources. (For the best review I've seen on media coverage of the case, including the role of blogs, see the most recent issue of American Journalism Review magazine, at www.ajr.org.)

Here at The N&O, we monitored blogs and message boards and took a lot of heat on our Editors' Blog. Much of the commentary was anonymous and repetitious.

"Durham-in-Wonderland" stood out in this mix, though I didn't and don't endorse the blog's opinions.

Johnson put his name and credentials up for scrutiny. He put a lot of work into his posts and corrected his errors. He did deep analysis on certain aspects of the case.

The rape charges in Durham eventually collapsed in the face of reporting (by The N&O and others), lawyering, commentary and public outrage; the three indicted players were exonerated and Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong lost his job and law license and spent a night in jail.

The former players are pressing the city of Durham for a reported $30 million in compensation, so the lacrosse case isn't over. Johnson's "Durham-in-Wonderland," however, will shut down Oct. 1, and its author will return to academia as a Fulbright professor in Israel.

The N&O will keep reporting, building on the lessons of this case.