The progressive blogosphere

Kari Chisholm

In the ongoing media battle between left and right, there's a bit of a dust-up happening over a panel discussion about blogging hosted by the Brookings Institution and another panel planned by the National Press Club - both of which are systematically excluding any and all bloggers from the left side of the aisle.

Obviously, that's stupid. While it might seem silly to argue over invitations to panel discussions, the National Press Club serves an important role in defining what's 'mainstream' in the eyes of the media. If their members (who are national-level journalists) see the conservative blogosphere as the sole representatives of online commentary, then coverage will be slanted.

Fortunately, here in Oregon, blogging is seen as something that progressives are engaged in - in part because of the great commentary happening in our local progressive blogosphere.

I've signed the open letter at The Agonist asking the National Press Club to reconsider. Here's an excerpt:

We, the undersigned bloggers, are very concerned about how liberal political bloggers are being systematically under-represented and belittled in the mainstream media, academic settings and media forums. By being intentionally excluded away from these venues, we are effectively pushed out of the discourse of opinion-leaders. The result is that the conventional wisdom about blogging, politics and journalism, as it concerns liberal blogs, becomes a feedback loop framed by the Conservatives and their media allies.

Indeed, just a few weeks ago, The Brookings Institution hosted a panel that originally included no liberal political bloggers and yet while including numerous conservative political operatives in the event. We registered our protest and the Brookings Institution's response was simply to invite a few liberal political bloggers to attend, yet not sit on the panel, as we had originally insisted upon.

Today, however, we are faced with an entirely new situation that is more insult than misrepresentation. The discredited conservative media operative Jeff Gannon, neé Guckert, has been invited to sit on a panel at the prestigious National Press Club to talk about the scandal surrounding his access to the White House and more generally, the similarities and differences between bloggers and journalists. Guckert's token liberal counterpart will be a gossip blogger and sex comedy blogger. While we have nothing but the greatest respect for Mr. Graff and Ms. Cox we believe that neither represents bloggers who write about hard-nosed politics. And as for Mr. Guckert, he isn't a blogger, he's barely a journalist, and not a single political blogger involved with the Gannon/Guckert scandal, or otherwise, has been invited to sit on the panel to counter Mr. Guckert's arguments.

In any case, the authors of the open letter suggest contacting the folks at the National Press Club at [email protected].

Meanwhile, use the comments here to tell us: what Oregon blogs do you read? If you write one, introduce yourself to BlueOregon...

By Kari Chisholm March 29, 2005