This afternoon, the Heading Left dynamic duo of James Boyce and Nate Wilcox put on a great show on Blog Talk Radio. The featured guest was Chris Bowers of MyDD. The main topics of discussion were John Edwards' "bloggergate," the rise of the local blogs, and some advice by Chris Bowers to Democratic candidates on how to "find the netroots zeitgeist."
Below, I have some highlights from the show. To listen to the podcast, click here. Also, please note that this coming Monday from 2-3 PM Eastern Time, the featured guest on Heading Left's Blog Talk Radio show will be Senator John Kerry. Chris Bowers will also be on that show, with Senator Kerry calling in at 2:30 PM Eastern Time. For that show, please click here. And don't forget that you can call in at (646) 652-4803 to ask questions or make comments during the show.
*Blog Talk Radio is taking off. It is also really unique; where else can you listen to Chris Bowers talk about local blogging and give advice to Democratic Presidential candidates?
*Also on Blog Talk Radio, MyDD has its own show, Taylor Marsh has her own show, right-wing bloggers (like Captains Quarters) have their own shows.
*Power is moving from the national to the local blogs. This is truly remarkable.
*Nate runs through the "blog buzz" of the week, including, of course, the "bloggergate" situation involving the Edwards campaign, Amanda Marcotte of Pandagon.net and Melissa McEwen of Shakespeare’s Sister.
*Nate talks about how it was a bold move, risky move by Edwards to hire these two passionate progressive bloggers. Nate praises Edwards for his "bold" response, and says this is a big change from what would have happend a few years ago.
*Nate makes the point that it Chris Bowers definitely led the charge from the progressive netroots community to let Edwards know there would be consequences if he folded on this one.
*Nate gives a "shout out" to Firedoglake's Christy Hardin Smith for her continued superb coverage of the Libby trial. Nate asserts that bloggers are raising the game of the MSM.
*Chris talks about his MyDD article, "Advice for Democratic Campaigns: Find the Netroots Zeitgeist". The key to netroots support is "to tap into a deeper pattern of belief and feeling that’s shared by a wide variety of netroots activists."
*Nate talks about how Jerome Armstrong and Markos Moulitsas have written about the increasing importance of the local blogosphere, and how Chris had a great post analyzing current trends in blog traffic. The basic conclusion is that the action is on the local level.
*Chris says that while the base daily audience for progressive blogging has remained flat since around Hurricane Katrina, local blogging is experiencing a huge growth rate in traffic. Chris talks about why that might be the case (e.g., local media is experiencing a total market failure in this country).
*Nate talks about how exciting it was to be in Virginia last year and watch the Jim Webb campaign take off online. With primary turnout only 3%, it is almost certain that the readership of local blogs influenced the vote directly.
*James gives a "shout out" to the great state blog, "Blue Jersey."
*James argues that the MSM is increasingly being exposed and is "absolutely falling apart."
*Nate comments that the vast majority of information in Virginia General Assembly races this year will appear on the blogs. The traditional information delivery mechanism has completely collapsed.