What exactly is countering? Well, if one were to define the term without reading the chapter in Rewriting, his or her answer would most likely be "proving someone wrong"; however, that is not how Harris defines it. Harris claims the act of countering "is not to nullify but to suggest a different way of thinking," or in other words, using the text of others to provide a spring-board for another view. Of course, this view can be the total opposite, but the writer should think of countering as adding more to the conversation. My junior AP English and Composition teacher, Ms. Carnefix, was also quite partial to this definition. She required us to qualify our arguments, saying our view was "true most of the time, except in these circumstances."
Finding an example of this in a blog was a bit more difficult, as most posts were either forwarding or simply contradicting a source. After frantic searching, I came across yet another article at The Daily Kos. My apologies for the crude title, but it does, in fact, counter. The post starts out with Republican congressman Steve King quoted as saying "All Americans have health care, every single one," which, as we all know is blatantly false. The article then uses this quote to firmly establish that many Americans are left without healthcare through examples that illustrate the dire conditions these people are trapped in. By establishing that Americans need healthcare, the article takes "All Americans have health care, every single one," and turns it into "Americans need healthcare because too many are left without it—which is dangerous."
The key word which basically caught my attention and helped me settle on what you were saying is "nullify". Countering is exactly as you described it as a different way of thought; this concept is not seen today as it used to be especially since in today's world, debates and such programs show it as a tool for retaliation not as a indication of a different mind set or thought process.
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