I'm turning The Daily Pulse into its own blog (though I will still publish it here). My goal is to expand the concept significantly, while still focusing on "the pulse" of the nation outside the titans of the media.
In '04, I think those paying attention to only national news missed just how strident the localities were on certain issues. I know that on election day, when I drove from Indianapolis to Dayton, I had no idea just how many anti-gay marriage yard signs I would see. The Corporate Media just didn't capture the breadth or depth of the underlying "morales" fight until after the election. The local letters to the editor and editorials, however, did.
Right now, what I envision is a blog that allows comments, but not diaries. The idea is simple- to focus on news and editorials, and not turn it into a diary fest, which would eventually just look like a pale imitation of what is already out there. So far, ideas for regular contributors are:
- The Daily Pulse- random survey of editorials, with snippet quotes and commentary.
- Letters- a SEPARATE random survey of LTEs, with snippet quotes and commentary.
- Columns- a third survey, this time of local columnists.
- News summary- how is the local media running the national news? Same idea as above, but from the front and national pages of papers other than the NYTimes, Wall St. Journal, etc.
- Ditto TV and radio, if possible, though perhaps not.
- The Pulse of the World- same idea as the Daily Pulse, but from papers outside the US- how they view what is going on here, and how they view what is going on world-wide.
- Original opinion columns- but not on the news, rather on how the News is handling the news. Why is stem cell research still showing up every week in the LTEs, even though the Corporate Media hasn't mentioned them in a month? How much of the local editorial page is taken up by religion? Is religion a driving force on front pages? That sort of thing.
- Blog round ups. This might be similar to the Dauo Report, but perhaps it would look to more local blogs, as well.
I would love to include a cartoon round-up, but there's really no good way to republish cartoons and have fair use, because you have to publish the whole thing for it to make sense. If somebody wanted to do comments and links, I guess that would work, but it probably wouldn't be much fun.
So I'm looking for a couple of things. Obviously, first I would take any and all advice to make this work, and to keep it from being redundant. I don't think it would imitate Media Matters, because it is not the corporate media, and at least attempts to be random in what it selects, if not the included commentary.
Second, contributors. Is anybody interested in being a regular "columnist," and taking on one of the above, alone, or in tandem with others.
Third, viewers. Is it something you might find interesting, informative?
Fourth, ideas. Keeping in mind the goal, to take the pulse of the country, rather than the corporate media, what else should be included?
So, any takers?