Wednesday, February 11, 2009

They hate us for our freedoms

Us bloggers, that is. Chris Bowers explains why the DC press corps was so horrified that President Obama called on Huffington Post the other night:
...[N]ew media has allowed alternative power centers on the left-wing of the Democratic / progressive coalition to rise as challenges to established, and largely corporate, dominance. No one in the political and media establishment would attack the Huffington Post, Daily Kos, or Moveon.org if they were operating as supportive adjuncts to, say, the Blue Dog coalition. The reason they are viewed as dangerous and worthy of attack is because of the political views they espouse, not just because they are new media. As long as these new organizations thrive, they offer voters, activists and politicians potential insulation should they seek other avenues than corporate PACs, large donors, and conglomerated corporate media outlets.
Long live new media. And while I'm sympathetic to the plight of our dying newspapers, I have little sympathy for the White House stenographers that forgot to ask questions these past eight years.

UPDATE: He also lays to rest the "no one reads blogs" canard:
Political blogging, especially progressive political blogging, is a major news medium in Washington, D.C. On a per capita basis, progressive political blogs are more frequently read in D.C. than anywhere else--and by a long, long way. People in D.C. are reading what you post here. How much of an impact it has is entirely open to question, but it is getting read.

1 comment:

Lee Roberts said...

Newspapers deserve their fate. I say that despite the fact that I don't know anyone other than my dad who loves them more than I do.

As soon as owners aligned themselves with advertisers their destiny was sealed.

This period of transition should prove interesting as heck.