According to Wa Po, Charlie Rose will discuss blogs with Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit, Andrew Sullivan of New Republic, Wonkette.com's Ana Marie Cox, and Joe Trippi (blog name noticeably absent, presumably a guest because of supposed role in uniting Dean & the blog world).
I have a big problem with this lineup.
I have nothing against the Wonkette site. I sometimes read it, and find entries funny, although perhaps not as funny as Wonkette herself finds them.
My problem is that, just as during the political season last year, it seems that MSM outlets use Ms. Cox as the key representative of liberal bloggers. I disagree with almost everything that both Glenn Reynolds and Andrew Sullivan write, including their use of infinitives and placement of commas, but I concede that they at least attempt to put forward a serious (although,again, in my mind, wrongfully slanted) discussion. Wonkette provides often snarky, often profane, often trivial gossip focusing on body parts and who's doing what with whose. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Other than occasional musings on MSNBC's blog, where is Joe Trippi in the blog world?
My point is that too often, shows that are supposed to inform are stacked with conservatives who sound credible, if only in contrast to those presumably chosen to represent the progressive side. The conservative side in this instance is represented by a college professor & someone who's written for national publications. Our side is represented, if at all, by someone whose blog devotes a lot of space to jokes about drinking, genital size, and anal sex, and the ousted campaign manager of the new DNC head. And his connection to blogs, other than learning of their power to sway opinion & raise money is???
I know that kos & others whose blogs offer serious discussion of issues appear on shows, but they don't seem to be the shows that get the most attention. Why is that? It seems to me that getting the left side's message out should mean trying to get on every outlet that will draw attention to blogs like this one. One of the problems with the election was that the Democrats kept sending the wrong people, with the wrong messages, out to waste air time against people who knew the agenda they wanted to push and did a discipline job of pushing it. We should force the medai to acknowledge that our side has serious thinkers too.