Random thought of the day: Have you ever noticed how big a chunk of the dominant political blogosphere is a conduit to promote white people (mainly men) living in Washington, D.C. - and further, how seemingly oblivious to this situation these folks seem to be? It's actually kind of stunning.
I just happen to peruse a site called Bloggingheads.tv - and you'll see that, barring a few exceptions, it's basically a site showing white men in D.C. debating white men in D.C. (which begs a separate question: If everyone is in D.C. why do they have to debate via the Internet - can't they just be in the same room?).
Then there was this debate about HBO's The Wire over at The American Prospect's blog - again, I think it's all white people (not sure, but I think so because I know of most people debating). That's particularly notable considering The Wire is a show that is, at its core, about the diversity of urban America. I mean, at some level, it's just straight up hilarious and sad to watch a bunch of white pundits in D.C. debate a show about the hard scrabble realities of urban America - rather than, say, going out to report on those realities, or at least getting a non-white, non-D.C.-centric perspective on the show itself.
And I caught this New York Times article about a bunch of white guys in D.C. who live together and blog - the NYT apparently getting in on the act of applauding the incestuousness and homogeneousness of it all.
A while back, I had written a post about how people outside of the New York-Washington area are basically completely shut out of the media. I also realize it isn't news that minorities are shut out of the media, and specifically the political media. And, of course, there are great sites you can find different voices from.
But the examples I've pointed out in this post is undeniably a bigger trend within much of the dominant political blogosphere - and it comes from the "progressive" infrastructure that everyone is so thrilled about. Considering that, you'd think the masters of the self-described progressive world would try just a wee bit harder to break out just a little bit and use the Internet to geographically and ethnically diversify the platform. I mean, really - important stuff happens in Washington, D.C., but does the only important stuff happen in Washington, D.C.? And are only upper-crust white men available to explain to us outside-the-Beltway heathen what's going on in the nation's capital?
I'm sure some folks will show all sorts of examples that seem to prove my thesis wrong about a sizable chunk of the political blogosphere being dominated by the White D.C.-O-Sphere - but I really think the trend is undeniable. And I'm not trying to be an asshole by pointing this out. I realize I am a white guy (though not living in D.C.) - and despite that, I don't think it's helpful to ignore the issue. I think it's something for folks to reflect on, especially at a moment when the heartland - not D.C. - has become so important, and when race has become such an overtly critical issue in national politics (in my opinion, the heartland has always been important and race is always a critical issue, but only recently has this region and race become OVERTLY critical for obvious reasons).
Anyway - what do you think? Am I wrong? And if I'm not wrong, what can we do about the problem?
UPDATE: I should have mentioned this in the post, but take a look at Atrios's post today about what blogs the mainstream media most frequently reads (this is one loose definition of what I mean by dominant political blogosphere). If I'm not mistaken, it is almost all blogs written by white guys.