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Home , Arianna Huffington, Big tent, Bill Scher, Bob Mulholland, Cheryl Contee, David Sirota

‘The ’ Media Report MoveOn.org

September 12, 2008

TABLE OF CONTENTS

MEDIA SUMMARY ...... 3 TELEVISION ...... 13 PRINT ...... 73 ONLINE…………………………………………………………………………………………89

2

MEDIA SUMMARY

3 Television

CNN, America Votes 2008 The Big Tent mentioned as a blogging facility in , 8/28/08.

CNN, The Situation Room Mentioned the Big Tent as the place where 300 credentialed bloggers are working, 8/25/08.

CNN, The Situation Room Mentioned how the Denver Nuggets’ weight room would become the Big Tent, 8/19/08.

FBN, Countdown to the Closing Bell Josh Cohen interviewed about the Big Tent, 8/28/08.

FBN, America’s Nightly Scorecard Mentioned Google doing a good job with the Big Tent, 8/22/08.

CSPAN, Campaign 2008 Interviewed blogger Ben Tribbett about the Big Tent and filmed a walk-through of the entire tent, 8/28/08.

CSPAN2, Tonight From Washington Leslie Bradshaw from New Media Strategies mentions the Big Tent during her interview, 8/26/08.

MSNBC Morning Joe Interviewed several bloggers inside the Big (same clip ran on MSNBC News Live) Tent as part of Morning Joe’s “The Life of Bloggers: Cheetos-Eating, Star Wars Watching, Living in Basements?” 8/27/08.

NBC; Denver, CO The Big Tent mentioned as the location of T. Boone Pickens’ event, 8/31/08.

NBC; , MA The Big Tent credited with helping Phillip (same clip ran in Cedar Rapids, IA; Anderson of the AlbanyProject.com and Wichita Falls, TX; , NY; others get work done at the convention, , OH; Seattle, WA; interviewed Phillip Anderson and Markos , CA; Tuscon, AZ; Moulitsas about the Big Tent, 8/27/08. Albuquerque, NM; Davenport, IA; Austin, TX; , IL; Hartford & New Haven, CT; Baltimore, MD; Cincinnati, OH; Grand Rapids, MI; Burlington, VT; Milwaukee, WI; Columbus, OH; Washington, DC)

NBC; Memphis, TN The Big Tent mentioned as the web (same clip ran in Columbia, SC) bloggers’ office, 8/26/08. NBC; News Orleans, LA Interviewed Aaron Nelson about the Big (same clip ran in Cincinnati, OH; Tent, 8/27/08. Louisville, KY)

4 NBC; Denver, CO Reported on the Big Tent having 500 credentialed bloggers, 8/25/08.

CW; New York, NY The Big Tent mentioned and a few reporters interviewed about the Big Tent experience, 8/29/08.

CW; Denver, CO David Sirota and interviewed about the Big Tent, 8/25/08.

CW; Denver, CO Mentioned preparations for the Big Tent and it housing a state-of-the-art blogging media lounge, 8/18/08.

FOX; Albany, NY The Big Tent mentioned as the blogger (same clip ran in Milwaukee, WI; headquarters, 8/29/08. Baltimore, MD; Reno, NV)

FOX; Denver, CO Mentioned the Big Tent as a place for journalists and nonprofit leaders, 8/22/08.

FOX; Columbia, SC Mentioned that the Big Tent has a lot to (same clip ran in Springs, CO) offer to media and bloggers, 8/21/08.

FOX; Denver, CO Mentioned the Big Tent and how it will house bloggers from all over the world, 8/18/08.

ABC; Rochester, NY Jane Flasch reported on the Big Tent and how the number of bloggers increased since the last convention, 8/26/08.

ABC; Colorado Springs, CO Mentioned taking its viewers inside the Big Tent of bloggers the following day, 8/25/08.

NBC; Bangor, ME The Big Tent mentioned and Mara Schiavocampo interviewed, 8/27/08.

CBS; Denver, CO The Big Tent mentioned as the center of the blogosphere, Aaron Nelson interviewed, Phillip Anderson interviewed, and a filmed walk-through of the Big Tent, 8/25/08.

Clips viewable through this web report: http://www.criticalmention.com/report/4166x36621.htm

5 Print

Associated Press (also ran in Real “Bloggers embraced at Democratic convention,” ClearPolitics, IL; International by Ivan Moreno, 8/27/08. Herald Tribune; CBS2 Chicago; News24, ; Vail Daily News, CO; San Diego Union Tribune; CNN Political Ticker; Peoria Journal Star, IL; CNN, Sun-Sentinel.com, FL; Forbes; MSN Money; cbs4denver.com; TheDenverChannel.com; 9NEWS.com, CO; Orlando Sentinel; Fort Worth Star Telegram; Myrtle Beach Sun News; Boston Globe; Sun; Washington Times; San Luis Obispo Tribune; Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, GA; amNewYork; Allentown Morning Call; News & Observer, NC; Bradenton Herald; guardian.co.uk; Monterey County Herald, CA; Hartford Courant; Durham Herald Sun, NC; Seattle Times; San Jose Mercury News; Inquirer; Houston Chronicle; Rock Hill Herald, SC; KTLA, CA; Baltimore Sun; Chronicle; Chicago Tribune; Modesto Bee, CA; Newsday, NY; Times; Marin Independent-Journal, CA; TheNews Tribune.com, WA; El Paso Times; Centre Daily Times, PA; WBT, NC)

AFP (also ran in .com; AsiaOne; “New media army descends on convention,” 8/27/08. PhysOrg.com; Lanka Business Online; Straits Times, Singapore; France24; WA today, Australia; Brisbane Times, Australia; Sydney Morning Herald, Australia; The Age, Australia)

New York Times (see ‘Online’ listing A version of “In Denver, a Thousand Little Pieces,” below) by David Carr, ran in the print edition, 9/1/08, on page C1.

New York Times (see ‘Online’ listing A version of “The Year of the Political Blogger below) Has Arrived,” by Amanda M. Fairbanks, ran in the print edition, 8/24/08, on page ST1.

Washington Post “Party Scene's In Crowd? Outsiders Staked a Claim.,” by Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts, 8/29/08.

6 Washington Post “Where Minority Is Majority,” by , 8/28/08.

San Francisco Chronicle “Youngest, most diverse Dem Convention ever,” by Joe Garofoli, 8/25/08.

Online

CBS News “Answers To Your Questions,” Answers given by and Bob Schieffer, 9/1/08.

CBS: Horserace ’08 “T. Boone Pickens Predicts $200 A Barrel Oil,” by Scott Conroy, 8/27/08.

CBS: Horserace ’08 blog “Bloggers Work – And Socialize – Inside Denver’s “Big Tent”,” by Brian Montopoli, 8/26/08.

CBS News “Unconventional Coverage On The Web,” by Larry Magid, 8/25/08.

FOX News “Bloggers Out in Force at Denver Convention,” by Judson Berger, 8/26/08.

PBS: MediaShift blog “Digg Puts Focus on Politics, Bringing Charges of Liberal Bias,” by Simon Owens, 9/4/08.

PBS: MediaShift blog “Bloggers Make Progress Covering Convention at DNC,” by Laura Hertzfeld, 8/28/08.

PBS: MediaShift blog (also ran in “The Best 2008 Political Convention Coverage Media Channel ) Online,” by Mark Glaser, 8/28/08.

PBS: MediaShift blog “Will the Big Tent in Denver Help Bloggers Break Through?” by Simon Owens, 8/20/08.

New York Times (also ran in the “In Denver, a Thousand Little Pieces,” by David International Herald Tribune) Carr, 8/31/08.

New York Times “Lost in a Convention Haze, With Bloggers Lurking at Every Turn,” by David Carr, 8/25/08.

New York Times: Style blog (also ran “The Year of the Political Blogger Has Arrived,” by in Spartanburg Herald Journal, SC; Amanda M. Fairbanks, 8/22/08. Sarasota Herald-Tribune, FL; Gadsden Times, AL; Gainesville Sun, FL; BlueRidgeNow.com, NC; The Ledger, FL; StarNewsOnline.com, NC; Democratic Underground, DC; Think Progress)

7 : Jacket Copy blog “What's booking in Denver,” by Carolyn Kellogg, 8/26/08.

Chicago Tribune & Baltimore Sun: “Bloggers flex muscles in Denver,” by Frank The Swamp blog James, 8/27/08. “Dem Convention a Hot Spot for Bloggers,” by Katie Paul, 8/28/08.

The Atlantic: Clive Crook blog “The end of blogging,” by Clive Crook, 8/26/08.

The Nation “What's Changed?,” by Christopher Hayes, 8/26/08.

The Nation “Denver: The Unofficial Guide,” by Peter Rothberg, 8/24/08.

National Journal: Convention blog “Even In Denver, Bloggers Keep Independent Streak,” by Kevin Friedl, 8/27/08.

National Journal: Convention blog “Google Hits Are Plentiful In Denver,” by David Hatch, 8/26/08.

National Journal: Convention blog “Bloggers Set Up Shop In Half-Million-Dollar Tent” by Kevin Friedl, 8/26/08.

National Journal: The Hotline blog ““When Spider Webs Unite, They Can Tie Up A Lion”,” by Jennifer Skalka, 8/25/08

U.S. News & World Report: The “DNC Bloggers Choose Yoga, Not Cheetos,” by Inside Job blog Liz Wolgemuth, 8/27/08.

CQPolitics.com “Bloggers Get Unaccustomed Access in Denver,” by Eric Pfeiffer, 8/27/08.

Washington Times “LAMBRO: Changing of the guard,” by Donald Lambro, 8/28/08.

Washington Times “Bloggers get credentials, report from media center,” by Karen Goldberg Goff,” 8/26/08.

Christian Science Monitor (also ran “Bloggers at Democratic Convention Plant Their in Media Channel; Knoxville News Stake,” by Gail Russell Chaddock, 8/25/08. Sentinel)

Las Vegas Sun “New media, new questions,” by J. Patrick Coolican, 8/26/08.

Toledo Blade (also ran in Pittsburgh “Bloggers challenge "traditional media" at Post-Gazette) convention,” by Mackenzie Carpenter, 8/28/08.

San Francisco Bay Guardian “Man in the middle,” by Steven T. Jones, 9/3/08.

8 San Francisco Bay Guardian “American Dreamer: The Big Tent's vast left-wing conspiracy, by Steven T. Jones, 8/27/08.

San Jose Mercury News (also ran in “Blog Shack: At New Media Tent, Words and Beer Red Orbit; Oakland Tribune; Inside Flow Freely,” by Mary Anne Ostrom and Lisa Bay Area, CA; Alameda Times-Star, Vorderbrueggen, 8/26/08. CA; Daily Review Online, CA; Tri Valley Herald, CA; Oakland Tribune; San Mateo County Times, CA; The Argus, CA; Contra Costa Times; SiliconValley.com; Santa Cruz Sentinel)

San Jose Mercury News (also ran in “From bloggers to breweries,” by Mary Anne Contra Costa Times ; Tri-Valley Herald, Ostrom and Lisa Vorderbrueggen, 8/25/08. CA; The Argus, CA; Daily Review *Another version, “Bay Area 'icons' head to Online, CA; San Mateo County Times, Democratic convention,” ran 8/24/08. CA; Alameda Times-Star, CA; Oakland Tribune)

9NEWS.com, CO – NBC “DNC bloggers quadruple in size from Boston convention to Denver,” by Ben McKee, 8/27/08.

RealVail.com “Obama, DNC instill varying measures of hope, inspiration and trepidation,” by David O. Williams, 8/29/08.

Vail Daily News (also ran in Aspen “Drilling boom effects shown to thousands at Times; Glenwood Springs Post DNC,” by Phillip Yates, 8/28/08. Independent)

Sky Hi Daily News (also ran in Fort “DNC: Bloggers unite in ‘Big Tent’,” by David Collins Now ) Young, 8/26/08.

Vermont Public Radio “Vt Delegates: rallying, partying and blogging,” 8/29/08.

Sovo.com “Separate and unequal,” by Joshua Lynsen, 8/28/08.

MinnPost.com “Big Tent offers big boost for bloggers and ,” by Marisa Helms, 8/27/08.

KRDO, CO – ABC 13 “The Underground World Of DNC Bloggers,” by Heather Skold, 8/27/08.

KSNT, KS – NBC 27 (also ran in “Political bloggers getting royal treatment at DNC,” KSN-TV, KS – NBC 3) 8/26/08.

Rocky Mountain News “It's not Google,” by John Rebchook, 8/26/08.

Rocky Mountain News “'' blogger pans print, TV media,” by Jeff Smith, 8/25/08.

9 TheDenverChannel.com – ABC 7 “Big Tent To Host Blogger Circus,” by Thomas Hendrick, 8/21/08.

Topeka Capital Journal “Bloggers play large role at convention,” by Jan Biles, 8/26/08.

Heritage Foundation: The Foundry blog “Is Google a Force for America’s Global Hegemony?,” by Conn Carroll, 8/28/08.

Democracy Now! “When Off the Silver Screen, Actress Daryl Hannah Seen on Frontlines of Environmental Movements,” Interview, 8/28/08.

Civilrights.org “Changing Representations in the Media,” by Jenna Wandres, 9/2/08.

US Politics Today “Democratic Convention, Day 1: From The Speaker's Platform, Women Rule,” by Joe Rothstein, 8/25/08.

Huffington Post “Debuting Activism at the Democratic Convention,” by Laura Carlsen, 8/26/08.

Huffington Post “Big Tent Tour: Inside Blogger DNC Headquarters (And Spa),” by Kelly Nuxoll, 8/25/08.

AlterNet (also ran in Journal-Advocate; “The Democratic Convention Was Anything But The Coloradoan; Seattle Times; In Conventional,” by David Sirota, 8/29/08. These Times, IL; Denver Post; San Francisco Chronicle; Truthdig; ) mediabistro.com: TVNEWSER “Inside the Tent at ABC News,” by SteveK, 8/29/08.

PRWeek “MSNBC tensions, bloggers highlight Democratic convention media news,” by Frank Washkuch, 8/29/08.

Conde Nast Portfolio “The Corporate Convention,” by Matt Cooper, 8/27/08.

Red Orbit (also ran in Consumer “Ustream and Google News Team Up to Provide Electronics Net, CA; TMC Net, CT; Live Streaming for the Republican National Broadcast Newsroom, CA; Digital Convention,” 9/4/08. Producer, CA; DMN Newswire, CA; PR-Inside.com (Pressemitteilung), Austria; Centre Daily Times, PA; Earthtimes, UK; Ad-Hoc-News (Pressemitteilung), Germany; Market Watch; Business Wire, CA)

10 Silicon Alley Insider “World Saved As "Bloggers" Mob Political Conventions,” by Henry Blodget, 9/1/08.

New America Media (also ran in New “Deconstructing the Ethnic Vote at the DNC,” by Media) Anthony D. Advincula, 8/29/08.

Open Democracy: Open USA blog “Voices without Votes on the Convention,” by Solana Larsen, 8/28/08.

Democratic Underground “"Conventional Wisdom",” by Hissyspit, 8/28/08.

Computer World (also ran in The “Following political conventions the Web 2.0 way,” Industry Standard) by Heather Havenstein, 8/25/08.

Blog d'AdmiNet (taken from Google “Denver recap and St. Paul update,” by Rick Klau, blog) Brittany Bohnet, and Steve Grove, Google Elections Team, 9/2/08.

Bizmology blog “Politicos and techies mingle in the 2008 presidential election process,” by Jeff Dorsch, 8/29/08.

CNET News: The Social blog (also “Digg town hall: Local news options, forums on the ran in ITvoir blog, India) way?,” by Caroline McCarthy, 8/28/08.

CNET News: Politics and Law blog “Product marketing joins politics at Democratic convention,” by Stephanie Condon, 8/27/08.

CNET News: Politics and Law blog “Democratic bloggers shun official digs for 'Big (also clipped in Inquirer.net) Tent',” by Stephanie Condon, 8/26/08.

Poynter.org “Bloggers Stake Convention Claim in 'Big Tent',” by Steve Myers, 8/26/08.

WebProNews “Can You Digg the Democratic and Republican Conventions?,” by Chris Crum, 8/22/08.

Steamboat Pilot “Bloggers find a home in DNC,” by Brandon Gee, 8/26/08.

New West “Blogging the “Big Tent”,” by Amy Brouillette, 8/25/08.

Associated Content “Google's Two-Story "Tent" Hosting Bloggers at Denver DNC,” by Dave Maddox, 8/24/08.

Globe and Mail, Canada “Google likes its bloggers refreshed,” by Siri Agrell, 8/27/08.

The Herald, Glasgow, UK (also ran in “An Event Made for Movers, Shakers and Red Orbit)) Bloggers,” by Michael Settle; 8/27/08.

11

Other minor mentions in: Reader's Digest.com; Allentown Morning Call, Rocky Mountain News; Indecision 2008; Conde Nast Portfolio; Heritage.org; Huffington Post; Third Party Watch; Sovo.com; Washington Blade; Houstonvoice.com; Beyond Chron; Democratic Underground; Globe and Mail; Seeking Alpha; Denver Post; Northwest Progressive Institute Official Blog; New West; Examiner.com; Crikey, Australia; Seeing the Forest; Austin American-Statesman; Fort Collins Now; Washington Times; National Journal; Raw Story; Northwest Progressive Institute Official Blog; Vail Daily News; Volkskrant, Netherlands; InternetNews.com; Marketing Pilgrim; Civilrights.org; Philadelphia citypaper.net; Catholic Courier; OneWorld.net, UK; Catholic Weekly; PR-USA.net, Bulgaria; Progressive.org; Reiten Television KXMB Bismarck, ND; KXMC, ND; Redwood City Daily News; NewsBusters; The Huntsville Times; Grist Magazine; Denver Post; Mashable; OneWorld, US; Consumer Electronics Net; 13WHAM-TV, NY; The Plank on TNR.com; UN Dispatch; Ad-Hoc-News, Germany; Business Wire; Radar Online; BlueOregon; Berkeley Daily Planet; RushPRnews.com (press release), Canada; IT Business Net; Brad Blog: Baltimore Sun; Michigan Messenger; Hollywood Industry; AdAge.com; San Francisco Bay Guardian; eMediaWorld.com; It's Getting Hot In Here; Broadcast Newsroom; In These Times; CQPolitics.com; ZDNet.com.au; DVD Creation; Silicon Alley Insider; New West; Sun Valley Online.com; Biloxi Sun Herald; Digital Facility; Think Progress; Critical Mass; NewsBlaze, TechWeb; WebProNews; AlterNet; Technosailor; The Coloradoan; Reno Gazette Journal; The ; Carson Times; Macon Telegraph; Times Online, UK; Mainstream Media Project; Nextgov; Boulder County Business Report; PC World; NewTeeVee; Cityfile; editorsweblog.org; IDG News; Durango Herald; Plenty Magazine; KIAL, AK; Dutch Harbor Fisherman)

12

TELEVISION

13

The Big Tent September 12, 2008

Total Number of Cumulative Est. Cumulative Est. Publicity Value: Clips: 64 Audience: 6,143,962 $410,142 (Sum of Clip Totals)

Entry #1

9News Sunday Morning KUSA (NBC) Denver, CO DMA: 18 Aug 31 2008 7:17AM Programming Type: News

Est. Households/Views: 114,528 Est. Publicity Value: $2,377 (30 sec.) Clip Total: $14,262

>>> among the crowd at this week's dnc was an oil tycoon who funded the swift boat that targeted john carry in the past. t boone pickens had a warm reception from the party. al lewis writes about it today. he talked at the big tent in denver where a few hundred bloggers set up laptops to cover the convention. he was talking and a lot of people were listening. >> absolutely, shawn, good morning. he got a great reception here. he was on stage with none other than the executive director of the sierra club. everybody seems to say well, the t boone pickens plan, i sometimes wonder if it isn't a little in politics to criticize anybody with an alternative energy plan. part of the reason he got a good reception. he basically destroyed what the democrats wanted last time around. >> quick background, spending $58 million of his own money in ads we have seen on the air here on several stations to reduce dependence on foreign oil, looking for wind energy, but what sparked your interest was his trying to get water, access to water. do you think he has a hidden agenda? >> i don't know if it is all that hidden. first of all, he has been long on natural gas for most his life, right? he owns tons and tons of natural gas, more

14 than half of his plan is to convert our cars to run on natural gas. imagine what this is going to do to the winter heating season. we are already seeing double digit increases in home heating bills. what if we were burning natural gas in cars. it would go up more. it is a bit of a self serving plan. the other part of his plan that everybody loves, building windore bins across the midwest. when you do that, you acquire land, and when you acquire land, you get water , and he made no secret of his plans to acquire water rights. he would like to own all the water in the west. >> quite a few people surprised at him not only coming to the dnc, because this is the guy that just did Play Media in john carry with the swift boat ads. >> Direct Link you got to love him. this is a guy who was basically thrown out of his company in the 1990s because he made bad bets on natural gas, right, but now he is stuck with bets on natural gas, and he made himself a billionaire several times over since being thrown out of his company. completely remade himself, shawn. now he is here saying buy more of my natural gas. this is going to reduce dependency on foreign oil, and it will. i am not totally against the pickens plan. i don't want to sound like it is allbunk, but there's a reason he is spending $58 million on it. it is in his personallal truism. >> check out that column in today's morning post. thanks, al. >> thank you, shawn.

Entry #2

CW11 Morning News 7A-9A WPIX (CW) New York, NY DMA: 1 Aug 29 2008 8:32AM Programming Type: News

Est. Households/Views: 112,766 Est. Publicity Value: $1,361 (30 sec.) Clip Total: $5,444

internet tore for the election coverage. blogers take center stage. >> they had their work. they are quoted by mainstream media and get morgue respect than ever before. >> it's new media circus under the big tent . conventions central for 500 blogers who called this two story 8,000 square foot structure home for the past week in denver. >> it's going to network opportunity for me and i like impart of democracy. >> reporter: relaxed atmosphere charged with energy is

15 inviting. politician used the space to get messages out. blogers get theirs out in the costs of free wireless and fruit smoothies. to juice up creative process. >> i see you got a beer moo yes is that okay. >> reporter: that's part of the whole experience. >> if they figure i think mi mid if they keep us relack we won't get too rowdy . >> aid getty we don't get the fancy sky boxes but we get to be with each other there's tremendous energy here. >> reporter: the political gets the privately funed tent off the ground with sponsors like google and it's clear blogging is going mainstream the dnc credentialed some 120 blogers not many so this place was designed to pick Play Media up the overflow. >> i like blogging. but i Direct Link can't blog here and that's why right now i am going back to the hotel because i can't think. >> reporter: so why are you here? >> well, this is the big tent . and it's big deal and people are saying a lot of big things so i figured i would come check it out. >> reporter: organizers are about to fold up the big tent . but the diverse voices that came out of it will continue to be heard. >> we are going to continue holding our elected official accountability. that's we as citizens are supposed to do. >> reporter: ellen marks cw11 morning news. >> majority of blogers in the tent are liberal. this are a handful of conservatives as well. >>> all right. mccain offers congratulationses to obama for the achievement in

Entry #3

FOX23 News Daybreak at 7:00a WXXA (Fox) Albany, NY DMA: 56 Aug 29 2008 7:17AM Programming Type: News

Est. Households/Views: 2,111 Est. Publicity Value: $25 (30 sec.) Clip Total: $50

mark at the democratic national convention.. mainstream reporters haven't been the only ones getting the scoop. vo five-hundred independent bloggers.. who aren't affiliated with any Play Media major news organization.. have their own Direct Link headquarters outside the pepsi center and invesco field where the convention's been held. they're in their own two-story structure called " the big tent ." many bloggers are working for political or non- profit organizations . for one- hundred

16 dollars.. a blogger can get workspace, free wi-fi and free beer. so who said bloggers are that different from the mainstream media? diane the federal government says the city of rensselaer won't be getting federal aid following flooding earlier this month. mark the city estimates damage at 20 million dollars.. and has been counting on fema funds to help repair what was lost to the floodwaters. as fox 23's kristin lowman explains.. county leaders and residents are devastated

Entry #4

Fox 6 Wake-Up News at 5 WITI (Fox) Milwaukee, WI DMA: 34 Aug 29 2008 5:26AM Programming Type: News

Est. Households/Views: 37,442 Est. Publicity Value: $411 (30 sec.) Clip Total: $1,644

3 3 3 >;new this morning - here's something that out to make àeveryà laptop owner happy... >;it's a security program designed to keep your computer from getting ripped off.it's the brainchild of brad isbell -- a former internet content manager. he was so worried his laptop might get stolen, he decided -- something had to be done. so he created a program that detects motion around the laptop, and sets off an alarm when someone gets àtooà close to it. the program can also send a text message to the owner's cell phone. 3 3 >;at the democratic national convention --- bloggers rule! from the sidelines. five hundred independent bloggers --- who aren't affiliated with any major news organization --- have their own headquarters outside the pepsi center and invesco field --- where the Play Media convention's been held. they're in their Direct Link own two-story structure -- called " the big tent ." for a hundred dollars, a blogger can get workspace, free wi-fi --- and free beer at the convention.. 3 3 >; you're 3 watching fox 3 six wakeup. we'll be right back. 3

Entry #5

America Votes 2008: Democratic National Convention

17 Programming, DMA: 0 Aug 28 2008 11:43PM Programming Type: Politics

Est. Households/Views: 758,371 Est. Publicity Value: $5,748 (30 sec.) Clip Total: $11,496

and posting it instantly on the web. this is from a blogger from new . he was there, right down on the field. you could see the atmosphere down there. but it's also, were watching these pictures all over the stadium. here's one from further up in the nose bleed seats. the enthusiasm of Play Media the crowd right there. and also pictures Direct Link coming in from watch parties across the as people gathered in see what was going on. looking around the blogs right now gathered in denver to watch this tonight in the big tent as it was called, a blogging facility to watch the proceedings, at the convention, one of the posters saying, a sense of relief that this was the that they were waiting for. wolf? >> our coverage continues for another 15 minutes. "larry king live" is going to then be having an hour program. let's check in with larry and see what he has coming up. >> larry: it was quite a night

Entry #6

Countdown to the Closing Bell FBN (FBN) National Programming, DMA: 0 Aug 28 2008 3:37PM Programming Type: Bus./financial

post on the board until 3:40. but more than a million shares to buy on many financials here going to the close. >> what a day. so much action. meantime, halfway across the country, last day of the democratic convention in denver. a lot more action to come there. particularly a place that isn't in the mile high stadium, the google big tent. joining us is josh cohen, business product manager for google news. he was with us last week to tell us about the big tent . we wanted to bring you back. how is the big tent going? 8,000 square feet, two stories, all bloggers, all the time. >> yeah. it's going great. we have on the first floor the google retreat people can come in and

18 open to the public. come in and try out different goingal products. tay can charge up their phones or computers. second floor we have an area where we've done a number of different talks and educational policy discussion with panelists. it's well receive and great to get a lot of new media bloggers and others involved and part of the convention. >> this is a massive prefab tent we're looking at. quite a bit of traffic. now we're looking on tin side. a lot of people here. but the dnc had official blogger loungebe side the pepsi center. with a kine of traffic did you see despite that offer ing? >> we see a ton of people go in all over the place. there are more and more people in the Play Media new media space involved and engaged in Direct Link politics. in the pepsi center, at the big tent . in front of people's computers. more and more people are getting involved, reporting on it and informed and getting engaged and participating in the electoral process. >> how does google foresee making money or at least generating buzz for google itself through this type of offering? >> yeah, well, it's really in

Entry #7

Campaign 2008 CSPAN (CSPAN) National Programming, DMA: 0 Aug 28 2008 11:23AM Programming Type: Politics Public affairs

the hub, so the r.j. esco peace and the other when you can find their as well. host: that is on c- span.org/politics. all available at c- span.org/politics. bill beutler, thank you very much. we have

been talking about bloggers, and there is a record number of bloggers covering this convention set up a few blocks from the pepsi center in a big tent. >> bloggers have special needs. we do a lot of the updates, so we'd need a strong internet connection that many can be using. and bloggers need food. but those two things together, connection and food, and that seems to be working pretty well so far. i am here as the credentials virginia blogger at the convention. this year is the first time in dnc history they have credentialed 1 blogging in each state. well, the convention held c-span is doing has every blogger that is credentialed in the big 10. we're pulling all the best post

19 down and linking lives of people can pull through and see it live. and so that we can see the best blogs ever going on. everyone puts in a symbol called pound- dnc-08. this is the big tent . you can see it is the seating free-for-all. bloggers said around wherever you can buy -- wherever you can grab a seat in the morning. it is pretty packed all through here with hundreds of people all that long. this ranges from everything from state bloggers to national borders around here. there is obviously a credential blogger in each state, plus a large national blog. if you are a national border, the have a larger room inside the pepsi center, which is basically a bunch of television's going on. then some bloggers have floor passes, but that is pretty where -- that is pretty rare. the floorboards will come back here at night on the big tent because they can -- and the floor blockers will come back here at night in the big tent because they watch it here. you just show up with your laptop and your power cord. there is wireless all throughout the hall here. it has not given out with hundreds of people logged in, so they did a great job with and with. there's been a lot of sharing of the little bit of power that we have here, and no one has run out yet, so it has worked out pretty well. bloggers had to pay $100 each to get into the center, and that came with all you can eat food for lunch and dinner, and free alcohol and sewed over here. so you can see behind me is the beer area. it has been great. one of the nice things about it is that people know to enjoy themselves here because everything in denver is in walking distance. i have noticed all the bloggers have been enjoying themselves responsibly. they do not want to get drunk and do something they do not want to see the next morning. it is really great. there are hundreds of bloggers and there at all times, just tapping away. it is great for being able to exchange information while we are all writing. it is really useful because there are people all around the country, and someone may -- from an from virginia may have stopped by, another state delegation, and they will tell us what their reaction was to our elected officials. it provides a lot more content as well. what are you writing about? >> i am writing about an abc cameraman who was arrested because he was filming democratic politicians and big donors. the denver police arrested him. >> who was it? do you know which politicians it was? >> no, it does not say which politicians it

20 was. "police in denver arrested an cameramen taking pictures on a public sidewalk of democratic senators and donors leaving a hotel." >> i have not had an experience like this before of this many bloggers in the room when news is being made. yesterday , when he was giving the keynote speech, the bloggers were really upset i heard that the speech was tinkered with a little bit because the bloggers were talking about how upset they were that he was not taking on . so the campaign quickly made some changes to make a more aggressive. -- to make it more aggressive. host: invesco field is the center of the political universe. tonight about 75,000 people plan to be at the stadium to see barack obama accepted parte's nomination. richard wine stain is inside the city. the delegates will be -- richard weinstein is inside the center. you're seeing the delegates' seats right there. they will be seated on the floor. everybody else will be up in the stands. you can see where senator obama will be speaking there. that is on the 50-yard line. all throughout the stadium is where the 75,000 people will be seated. half of the tickets for tonight were given to call rod -- to

Play Media Direct Link

Entry #8

WLBZ NEWS CENTER 2 at 5 WLBZ (NBC) Bangor, ME DMA: 152 Aug 27 2008 5:18PM Programming Type: News

Est. Households/Views: 11,726 Est. Publicity Value: $221 (30 sec.) Clip Total: $1,326

>>> whether it's news the latest entertainment buzz or politics bloggers go to work and play tonight we go inside the big tent at the democratic national convention to see them in action here's mara schiavocampo schiavocampo it's a workspace built inside a tent but you can hardly say those inside are roughing it nats we have a blueberry smoothie we've got a strawberry raspberry smoothie insidesmoothies chair massage wi fi access burritos and beerall the things bloggers say they need to work markos moulitsas daily kos we need laptops and electricity obviously but we also need beer meet the new generation of those covering the political conventionand check out their office the big tentsponsored in part by google and diggis a short walk from the pepsi center where most of the democratic convention events are held it's an eight

21 thousand square foot two story structure and for a one hundred dollar entrance feeit's an office away from the office for political bloggersaaron nelson alliance for sustainable coloradowe have 500 credentialed bloggers representing over 40 states several different countries both sides of the aisleincluding some celebrities darryl hannah actor bloggerthe internet is an incredible medium organizers decided to create this filing center for bloggers after being crammed into convention centers in 2004 it's a much needed resource for bloggersa group that for the most part don't make much money for their work like so many phillip anderson of the albany project dot com couldn't even afford to come to denver phillip anderson the albany project the financial challenge was stringing together enough money to do it he turned to his readers for donationsand was able to make the trip phillip anderson the albany project we raised about 15 hundred dollars which is actually the reason i'm able to attend anderson's readers helped him get to denver and the big tent is helping himand so many othersget to work newsdenver

Entry #9

7 News WHDH (NBC) Boston, MA DMA: 7 Aug 27 2008 4:36PM Programming Type: News

Est. Households/Views: 75,106 Est. Publicity Value: $1,772 (30 sec.) Clip Total: $7,088

the influential president season. >> it's a work spacebuilt in a tent but you can hardly sigh those inside are roughing it. >> there is a blueberry -- >> reporter: inscythe side smoothies, burritos and beer all the things bloggers say they need to work. >> we need laptops and electricity. we also need beer. >> reporter: meet the new generation of those covering the political convention and check out their office. big tent sponsored in part by google and dig is a short walk from the pepsi center where most of the democratic national convention events are held. it's a two-story structure and it is an office away from the office for political bloggers. >> we have 500 credentialled bloggers representing over 40 states, both sides of the ale. >> including some celebrities. >> the internet is this incredible medium. >> reporter: Play Media organizers decided to create this center Direct Link after being crammed into convention senters in 2004. it's a much needed resource for blog e a group that doesn't make much money for their work. like some phillipe anderson of the albany project.com couldn't even afford to come to denver. >> the financial challenge was scrapping togethers enough money to do it. >> he turned to his readers and was able to make the trip. >> i raised about $1500 which is, you know, really the

22 reason i'm able to attend. >> reporter: his readers helped him get to denver and the big tent is helping him and some others get to work. news, denver. >> don't forgot our byron barnett is coving the democratic national convention live in denver for all of us and he is blogging about his experiences. if you are interested in that log on to whdh.com. you'll find that there and the republicans get their convention started next week. dan hausle will be traveling to minnesota to bring us everything on that front and his live reports begin sunday night.

Entry #10

KWWL News at Noon KWWL (NBC) Cedar Rapids, IA DMA: 87 Aug 27 2008 12:34PM Programming Type: News

Est. Households/Views: 26,772 Est. Publicity Value: $185 (30 sec.) Clip Total: $740

iowa governor chet culver took the stage last night at the convention - harking back to obama's win in the iowa caucuses to propel his historic nomination you can watch and read all of governor culver's speech at the convention online at kwwl dot-com. even if you can't be in denver this week, the democratic national convention is closer than ever before. it's at your fingertips -- brought to you online by hundreds of political bloggers who are at work, and play. it's a workspace built inside a tent. but you can hardly say those inside are roughing it. we have a blueberry smoothie. we've got a strawberry- raspberry smoothie insidesmoothies, chair massage, wi-fi access, burritos and beerall the things bloggers say they need to work. we need laptops and electricity obviously, but we Play Media also need beer. meet the new generation Direct Link of those covering the political conventionand check out their office. the big tentsponsored in part by google and diggis a short walk from the pepsi center, where most of the democratic convention events are held. it's an eight- thousand square foot, two story structure. and for a one hundred dollar entrance feeit's an offi away from the office for political bloggers we have 500 credentialed bloggers representing over 40 states, several different countries, both sides of the aisle

23 including some celebrities. the internet is an incredible medium. organizers decided to create this filing center for bloggers after being crammed into convention centers in 2004. it's a much needed resource for bloggersa group that for the most part don't make much money for their work. like so many, phillip anderson of the albany project dot com couldn't even afford to come to deer. the financial challenge was stringing together enough money to do it. he turned to his readers for donationsand was able to make the trip. we raised about 15 hundred dollars which is actually the reason i'm able to attend. anderson's readers helped him get to denver. and the big tent is helping himand so many othersget to work.

Entry #11

MSNBC News Live MSNBC (MSNBC) National Programming, DMA: 0 Aug 27 2008 9:53AM Programming Type: News

Est. Households/Views: 288,032 Est. Publicity Value: $5,748 (30 sec.) Clip Total: $45,984

>>> welcome back to "morning joe," live from sam's number 3 in denver much this place is hopping. >> it is. >> made such a fuss to see us arrive. a barry manilow lyric i threw in there. >>> willie, i understand you went out and talked to the peeps. >> there are a lot of ugly stereotypers out there about bloggers. put out by the of's the world. joe calls them the cheetos bri brigade. >> it's not their base pt. it's their mother's basement. >> let's see if the stereotypes are true. i went out yesterday. i'm outside the big tent , home this week of 400 cheetos-eating, star wars worshipping bloggers who live in their mothers' basements. take a look. have you ever or do you now eat cheetos while blogging? >> i don't. i don't like getting krups on my keyboard. >> do you eat cheetos while you blog? >> not while i blog, no. >> do you eat cheetos? >> no. >> do you eaton yons? >> no. >> do you eat cheetos rarely, yes. >> do you eat cheetos while you blog? >> i have, yes. >> what's your high score on dungeons and dragons? >> i i don't play it. >> i've never played dungeons and dragons. >> i stopped playing that in the sixth grade.

24 >> what's your highest score on dungeons and dragons? >> i don't know. >> do you have the star wars action figures in your home? >> no. >> go to any star trek conventions? >> no. never been. blogging conventions, though. >> have you ever met shatner? >> no. >> who's your favorite character in "chronicles of narnia? >> i haven't seen it. >> you're a liar. >> no. >> do you have any star wars statues in your home? >> r 2d2. >> do you live and work in your mother's basement? >> no, i own my own home. >> no, i haven't lived there in a long time. >> no, i'm actually afraid of the basement. >> my mother doesn't have a basement. >> how many times a day do you see light? >> do you live in your mother's basement? >> sometimes. >> do you blog from your mother's basement? >> i blog from everywhere, even the bathroom. >> see, joe, that's the nice thing. you can blog from anywhere, even the bathroom, as that man points out there. stereotypes not true. most of them don't eat cheetos. most of them live in homes that have second floors and they blog with daylight surrounding them. >> they eat doritos. >> i didn't see any star trek spock ears either. >> i think they actually confiscated them. a couple of them tried to come in in chewbaca outfits. >> come Play Media on. >> willie -- >> willie, good work. >> i Direct Link understand you're trying to rehabilitate a group that can't be rehabilitated. nice try. but in the end, guilty as charged. >> joe, i said it once, i'll say it again. i am a video blogger. you attack one of us, you attack all of us. >> you've upset him. >> so be it, jedi. >>> when we come back from denver, we've got tim rome every of the 9/11 commission, also more with mike murphy. we're going to squeeze every dollar's worth of political analysis we can out of him. and willie geist. this is my family. this is their new hdtv.

Entry #12

NewsChannel 6 This Morning WDSU (NBC) New Orleans, LA DMA: 53 Aug 27 2008 6:53AM Programming Type: News

Est. Households/Views: 33,099 Est. Publicity Value: $373 (30 sec.) Clip Total: $746

25 correspondant nikole killion explains live from denver. about 500 bloggers are credentialed to cover the democratic convention and we got a behind the scenes look at their operation. pkg. script) welcome to the big tent ... project manager aaron nelson says it's the first of its kind at a convention... with all the ammenities a blogger needs -- from a place to upload video to you tube... to a spot to charge your hand held... and there are lots of places to plug in and . // on cam: :47 so they can see what , msnbc and all the networks are covg as well :51) speaking to us as he live streams bill scher says he loves the access... a way for joan mccarter of the Play Media daily kos to unwind ...and unwire... as Direct Link soon as you she finishes her post. we're also posting daily on our own convention blog. it's more we're also posting daily on our own convention blog. it's more than just we're also posting daily on our own convention blog. it's more than just written accounts, we also have lots of video on line ...thanks to this hand-held video cam. anchor question: how were bloggers selected to cover the convention? anchor question: will they do the same thing at the republican convention next

Entry #13

KFDX 3 News KFDX (NBC) Wichita Falls, TX DMA: 149 Aug 27 2008 6:49AM Programming Type: News

Est. Households/Views: 11,443 Est. Publicity Value: $205 (30 sec.) Clip Total: $1,230

it's day three of the big ... and we go inside " the big tent " at the democratic national convention . where political bloggers go to work and play.it's a workspace built inside a tent. but you can hardly say those inside are roughing it.natswe have a blueberry smoothie. we've got a strawberry- raspberry smoothie insidesmoothies, chair massage, wi-fi access, burritos and beerall the things bloggers say they need to work.markos moulitsas/daily kos we need laptops and electricity obviously, but we also need beer. meet the new generation of those covering the political conventionand check out their office.the

26 big tentsponsored in part by google and diggis a short walk from the pepsi center, where most of the democratic convention events are held. it's an eight-thousand square foot, two story structure. and for a one hundred dollar entrance feeit's an offe away from the office for political bloggersaaron nelson/alliance for sustainable coloradowe have 500 credentialed bloggers representing over 40 states, several different countries, both sides of the aisle including some celebrities. darryl hannah/actor &;amp; bloggerthe internet is an incredible medium. organizers decided to create this filing center for bloggers after being crammed into convention centers in 2004.it's a much need resource for bloggersa group that for the most part don't make much money for their work. like so many, phillip anderson of the albany project dot com couldn't even afford to come to denver. phillip anderson/the albany projectthe financial challenge was stringing together enough money to do it.he turned to his readers for donationsand was able to make the trip. phillip anderson/the albany projectwe raised about 15 hundred dollars which is actually the reason i'm able to attend.anderson's readers helped him get to denver. and the big tent is helping himand so many othersget to work. Play Media msnbc news denver.you can see more Direct Link reporting from mara at nightly.msnbc.com - and tonight a report on hillary supporters in denver. how do they feel about supporting obama at the dnc? and for the latest coverage from the dnc, watch nbc nightly news with brian williams live in denver right after kfdx 3 news at five. we'll be right back.

Entry #14

Morning Joe MSNBC (MSNBC) National Programming, DMA: 0 Aug 27 2008 6:56AM Programming Type: News Interview

Est. Households/Views: 325,860 Est. Publicity Value: $7,185 (30 sec.) Clip Total: $57,480

>>> tell me it is time. >> time for news you can't use. this is an important story.

we talk about the cheetos brigade so often on this show. plogers that cover the

27 campaign on our show. i went into the belly of the beast. where the bloggers are covering the election. i asked them the important question that joe scarborough wants answers to. here you go. >> i'm outside the big tent , home this week of 400 cheetos eating star wars worshipping bloggers that live in their mother's basement. take a look. have you ever or do you now eat cheetos while blogging. >> i don't eat cheetos. i don't like getting crumbs on my keyboard. >> do you eat cheetos while you blog. >> not while i blog. >> do you eat cheetos? >> do you eat cheetos. >> no. >> do you eat fun yums. >> no. >> do you eat cheetos. >> rarely, yeah. >> do you eat cheetos while you blog. >> i have. >> what's your highest score on dunkons and dragons. >> i don't play dunk dungons and dragons. >> what's your high score? >> i don't know. i play rookie. >> do you have star wars action figures in your home? >> no. >> do you go to any star trek conventions. >> no, never been. blogging conventions, though. >> ever met shatner. >> no who is your favorite character in chronicles of narnia. >> you're a liar. >> i am not a liar. >> do you have any star wars action figures in your home? r2-d2. do you live and work in your mother's basement? >> no. i own my own home. >> no, i haven't been there in a long time. >> no. i'm actually afraid of the basement. >> my mother doesn't have a basement. >> how many times a day do you see light? do you live in your mother's basement? >> sometimes. >> do you blog from your mother's basement? >> i blog from everywhere, even the bathroom. >> all right. >> that's maybe too much information. >> turns out, joe, most of the bloggers, i talked to most of them don't eat cheetos. a lot of them eat doritos. most of them say they are dressed and up by 9:00 a.m. most of them, in fact, do not blog on the basement, on a higher floor, a ground level or office on the second story where Play Media light comes in. >> i think it's the bradley Direct Link affect. i don't know. >> i do, too. i think these bloggers are lying. i think there is a picture of star wars figures on their desk. >> they also didn't have terribly flattering things to say about us in the mainstream media. they don't eat cheetos or live in the basement. >> anything elts, willie? you don't have anything to show us? >> i do have something to show you. this is not my fault. matchbook. protect yourself from john mccain. can you see this? >>

28 are there matches in there or in fact something else. >> they are like matches. >> they don't allow you to smoke out here, do they? >> no wait. turns out they are not matches. protect yourself from john mccain. >> passed out by john mccain. >> passed out by planned parenthood.

Entry #15

News 5 Today WLWT (NBC) Cincinnati, OH DMA: 33 Aug 27 2008 6:49AM Programming Type: News

Est. Households/Views: 33,314 Est. Publicity Value: $334 (30 sec.) Clip Total: $1,336

explains from denver. reporter live lede: about 500 bloggers are credentialed to cover the democratic convention and we got a behind the scenes look at their operation. supers: aaron nelson/alliance for sustainable colorado bill scher/blogger nikole killion/reporting joan mccarter/blogger (daily kos) pkg. script) welcome to the big tent ... (vo: 11:27:17 " the big tent is literally a big tent :20 // on cam: 11:28:14 so because bloggers cant get into the convention, we've created our big tent to give them a workspace during the democratic national convention :19) project manager aaron nelson says it's the first of its kind at a convention... with all the ammenities a blogger needs -- from a place to upload video to you tube... to a spot to charge your hand held... and there are lots of Play Media places to plug in and connect. (vo: Direct Link "11:29:34 the bloggers have access to a maroon network wifi, a live audio feed direct from the pepsi center as well as a series of flat panel televisions :40 (butt to) :47 so they can see what cnn, msnbc and all the networks are covering as well :51) (i have a computer with a built in web cam ) speaking to us as he live streams ("i'm broadcasting) bill scher says he loves the access... ("it's been fantastic, you know it's been a center of blogging activity, media activity.) ("so here's my favorite part of the big tent ... the google retreat. so when you need a break, you can just grab a smoothie ....:16 (butt to) (i haven't tried a massage yet..that's on schedule for today, i really need one of those.) a way for joan mccarter of the

29 daily kos (cose) to unwind ...and unwire... as soon as you she finishes her post. (reporter live tag: we're also posting daily on our own convention blog. it's more than just written accounts, we also have lots of video on line ...thanks to this hand- held video cam. now let's get to what's coming up tomorrow on news 5 today... we're continuing our series on the cincinnati music resource center...a unique program aimed at keeping teens off the streets...and busy in their after- school hours... tomorrow...meet the woman behind the program...and find out what hurdles she sees - to keeping the music alive. we'll have another check of your forecast and commute in just a bit. first let's take a look at what's coming up on the today show.

Entry #16

NewsChannel 32 News WLKY (CBS) Louisville, KY DMA: 48 Aug 27 2008 5:55AM Programming Type: News

Est. Households/Views: 32,341 Est. Publicity Value: $230 (30 sec.) Clip Total: $920

democratic national convention. but there's a different way to get your news. bloggers are playing a significant role in this year's coverage. you can even check one out on wlky-dot-com. nikole killion explains. pkg. script) welcome to the big tent ... (vo: 11:27:17 " the big tent is literally a big tent :20 cam: 11:28:14 so because bloggers cant get into the convention, we've created our big tent to give them a workspace during the democratic national convention :19) project manager aaron nelson says it's the first of its kind at a convention... with all the ammenities a blogger needs -- from a place to upload video to you tube... to a spot to charge your hand held... and there are lots of places to plug in and connect. (vo: "11:29:34 the bloggers have access to a maroon Play Media network wifi, a live audio feed direct from Direct Link the pepsi center as well as a series of flat panel televisions :40 (butt to) :47 so they can see what cnn, msnbc and all the networks are covering as well :51) (i have a computer with a built in web cam ) speaking to us as he live streams ("i'm broadcasting) bill scher says he loves the

30 access... ("it's been fantastic, you know it's been a center of blogging activity, media activity.) ("so here's my favorite part of the big tent ... the google retreat. so when you need a break, you can just grab a smoothie ....:16 (butt to) massage.) (i haven't tried a massage yet..that's on schedule for today, i really need one of those.) a way for joan mccarter of the daily kos (cose) to unwind ...and unwire... as soon as you she finishes her post. (ad lib time and temp)

Entry #17

Today in New York WNBC (NBC) New York, NY DMA: 1 Aug 27 2008 5:23AM Programming Type: News

Est. Households/Views: 85,109 Est. Publicity Value: $2,218 (30 sec.) Clip Total: $8,872

massaging chairs, burritos and beer. >> we need laptops and electricity. we also need beer. >> reporter: meet the new generation of those in the political convention and check out their office. sponsored by google and dig, it's a short walk from the pepsi center. it's an 8,000 square foot two-story structure and for a $100 entrance fee, it's an office away from the office for political bloggers. >> we have 500 bloggers representing over 40 states, several different countries, both sides of the aisle. >> including some celebrities. >> the internet is an incredible medium. >> reporter: they were previously crammed in convention centers in 2004. it's a much-need resource for bloggers, a group that for the most part don't make much money for their work. phillip anderson of the albany Play Media project.com couldn't even afford to come Direct Link to denver. >> it was a challenge getting enough money to do it. >> reporter: he turned to his readers for donations and was able to make the trip. >> i raised about $1500, which is really the reason i'm able to attend. >> reporter: anderson's readers helped him get to denver, and the big tent is helping him and so many others get to work. >>> now if you go to nbc.com you can read their blogs. >>> a 9-year-old boy baseball pitcher in is apparently too good. jar ka scott is a

31 right-hander with a fastball at 40 miles per hour. the baseball league of new haven told the boy he could not pitch anymore. >> i feel kind of sad. >> i don't think it's fair. it sends the wrong message to kids. >> his mother says the boy is being unfairly targeted because he turned down an invitation to

Entry #18

Channel 3 News at 11 WKYC (NBC) Cleveland, OH DMA: 17 Aug 26 2008 11:25PM Programming Type: News

Est. Households/Views: 172,434 Est. Publicity Value: $3,214 (30 sec.) Clip Total: $12,856

burritos and beer, all the things bloggers say they need to work. >> we need laptops, and electricity, obviously, but we also need beer. >> reporter: meet the new generation of those covering the political convention and check out their office. the big tent sponsored by part of google and diggis, a short walk from the pepsi center, where most of the democratic convention events are held. it is an 8,000 square foot, two- story structure and for a $100 entrance fee, it is an office away from the office for political bloggers. >>> we have 500 credentialed bloggers representing over 4 state, several different countries, both sides of the aisle. >> reporter: including some celebrities. >> the internet is an incredible medium. >> reporter: organizers decided to create this filing Play Media center for bloggers after being crammed Direct Link into convention centers in 2004. it is a much needed resource for bloggers, a group that for the most part don't make much money for their work. like so many, phillip anderson of the albany project.com couldn't even afford to come to denver. >> the financial challenge was stringing together enough money to do it. >> reporter: he turned to his readers for donations, and was able to make the trip. >> we raised about $1,500, which is really the reason i am able to attend. >> reporter: anderson's readers helped him get to denver, and the big tent is helping him and so many others get to work. >> a brave new world. and we have a blogger at the convention. her name is kate snyder. she blogs on wkyc.com for local

32 insight on the convention. >>> regardless of which candidate wins the leak, a lefty will occupy the white house. yes, both barack obama and john mccain are left- handed. in fact, four of the last six presidents have been left- handed. the only righties have been and the current president bush. lefties make up just 10% to 15% of the population, and statistically, this trend of lefty presidents is remarkable,

Entry #19

FOX 45 News at 10 WBFF (Fox) Baltimore, MD DMA: 24 Aug 26 2008 10:42PM Programming Type: News

Est. Households/Views: 102,421 Est. Publicity Value: $4,125 (30 sec.) Clip Total: $8,250

real time view of what's going on at the convention. and get web exclusive content. like this story that takes you into the big tent where bloggers converge to Play Media cover convention happeningss. find it only Direct Link on foxbaltimore.com. click on "campaign plus". >> and you can be the first to know about breaking news, severe weather and traffic with fox 45 news mobile news. streaming video and text on your phone. sign up at foxbaltimore.com or text wbff to 88202. i am judy kurtz. and that's tonight word on the web. back to you. >> well, ravens rookie flacco starts for the next preseason game as qb. hear from the coach coming up in "sports unlimited". >> a barber tries to cut his way into the record book. see how he did it coming up. >> and i am joy lepola, coming up in 15 minutes on the "late edition". >> college graduates are hitting the job trail. why it may be more difficult than one thought.

Entry #20

KING 5 News KING (NBC) Seattle, WA DMA: 14 Aug 26 2008 6:42PM Programming Type: News

Est. Households/Views: 201,322 Est. Publicity Value: $2,355 (30 sec.) Clip Total: $9,420

33

>>> a much anticipated night is unfolding in denver. we have a live look at the democratic national convention where mark warner just took the stage. he is soon to be followed by . there's a whole new crowd covering the convention in a new way. dean staley going inside the political tent where political bloggers go to work and play. >> reporter: it's a work space built inside a tent. you can hardly say those inside are roughing it. >> a blueberry smoothie. >> reporter: care massage, -- chair massage and other things the bloggers need to work. >> we need things like beer. >> reporter: meet the new generation covering the political operation. it's sponsored by goggle and digg and is a walk from the pepsi center. it's an 8,000 square foot two- story structure. for $100 it's an office away from the office for political bloggers. >> we have 500 bloggers representing over 40 states, several countries, both sides of the aisle. >> reporter: including some celebrities. >> the internet is an incredible medium. >> reporter: organizers decided to design this for them after 2004. it's a much need resource for the bloggers, a group that doesn't make much money for their work. like so many philip anderson couldn't afford to come to denver. >> the Play Media challenge was coming to denver to do it. Direct Link >> reporter: he turned to readers for donations. >> we raised $1,500 which is the reason i'm able to attend. >> reporter: the big tent is helping anderson and others get to work. dean staley, king 5 news. >> keep it here for the

Entry #21

KING 5 News KING (NBC) Seattle, WA DMA: 14 Aug 26 2008 6:38PM Programming Type: News

Est. Households/Views: 201,322 Est. Publicity Value: $2,355 (30 sec.) Clip Total: $4,710

printing photos from home in less than an hour. >>> we will show you what's inside the big tent . >>> 's big plan for the x box. >>> it started so well. but the clouds are moving in and so is the Play Media rain. how long it will stick around and how Direct Link

34 much we will see. the forecast is ahead. >>> they have been caged inside all their lives. beoònkùçx&f#ss

Entry #22

NBC 7/39 News at 5PM KNSD (NBC) San Diego, CA DMA: 27 Aug 26 2008 5:25PM Programming Type: News

Est. Households/Views: 72,135 Est. Publicity Value: $1,998 (30 sec.) Clip Total: $7,992

>>> this week the democrats. next week the republicans. millions of americans will watch on tv. >> others will get their news from the internet and mara ski of a on campo will take you under the tent of the democratic convention where political bloggers go to work and play. >> it's a work space built inside a tent, but you can hardly say those inside are roughing it. >> i got a blueberry smoothie, inside, smoothies, wi-fi access, burritos and beer. all of the things bloggers say they need to work. >> they need lap topps. >> meet the new generation of those covering the political convention and check out their office. the big tent sponsored in part by google and dig is a short walk from the pepsi center where most of the democratic convention events are held. it's an 8,000 square foot two-story Play Media structure and for a $100 entrance fee, it's Direct Link an office away from the office for political bloggers. >> we have 500 bloggers representing over 40 states, several different country, both sides of the aisle. >> including some celebrities. >> the internet is an incredible medium. >> organizers are crammed into convention centers in 2004. it's a much-needed resource for bloggers who use it for the most part and don't make much money for their work. like so many, philip anderson couldn't even afford to come to denver. >> money is a challenge. i didn't have enough money to do it. >> he turned to his readers for donation and was able to make the trip. >> i raised about $1500 which is, you know, really the reason i'm able to finish. >> anderson's readers helped him get to denver and the big tent is helping him and so many others get to work. mara ski of a

35 Entry #23

NBC 7/39 News at 5PM KNSD (NBC) San Diego, CA DMA: 27 Aug 26 2008 5:21PM Programming Type: News

Est. Households/Views: 72,135 Est. Publicity Value: $1,998 (30 sec.) Clip Total: $3,996

francisco, 77, reno, 86 degrees. if you're coming downtown to petco park for the game tonight, beautiful night, 73 degrees and mostly sunny skies at 7:05. so do Play Media enjoy that padres victory tonight. our Direct Link extended forecast, not much change except for more humidity as the easterly flow picks up tomorrow, thursday, friday, more clouds also in the inland valleys as the weekend nears temperatures about 87 degrees for an average. >> love your optimism. >> always. thank you, pat. >> they're the new generation of people covering the political convention. >> welcome the big tent and the political bloggers poefrting their thoughts about what's going on inside the convention. >>> new at six, he was minutes away from death. a police officer shot down. how a medical device doctors used on combat troops saved the officer's

Entry #24

Tonight From Washington CSPAN2 (CSPAN2) National Programming, DMA: 0 Aug 26 2008 8:09PM Programming Type: News Politics Public affairs

lower on the, on the site, you have two different columns one of which is the state blog coverage so state bloggers who are credentialed and working with delegates and kind of have the insight track there,

they are posting a lot of great content as are the national blogs. and are credentials or working through traditional news agency or they themselves are there as kind of independent bloggers, two great resources for just understanding the full spectrum of what's going on. >> now do they have to be credentialed to do that? >> to be futured on our site, absolutely

36 not. we are covering bloggers who are covering the coverage from afar as well as people that are on the ground. in terms of getting around the dnc, i'm hearing from folks that didn't have credentials that are able to get into certain areas but of course there are lots of layers of security so there may just be kind of some side line attendees but the big tent is really a lot of the news coming out of there bloggers convening, sharing resources, and updating their blogvise wi-fi access, food, even an excerpt here i would like to share from all voices. >> sure. >> let's see, right down here, big media is even covering the tenant of the dnc and anna turene reports for all voices i was just Play Media interviewed by co-host of we were trying Direct Link to dispel the myth they are dungeon and dragon playing "star trek" fanatic living in their mother of basement type of folk so i think if anything from the big the big tent you will see lot of varserious journalists who are taking their credentials and the experience seriously to the, to the point of fact checking and kind of working, working their sources just like any other journalist would. >> at the end of these two convention will be, meaning anybody have any real feel for whether type of technology has worked? >>> i think we are seeing that it is working nabig way. i would like to kind of point out a few platforms we

Entry #25

NBC 7/39 News at 4:30PM KNSD (NBC) San Diego, CA DMA: 27 Aug 26 2008 4:56PM Programming Type: News

Est. Households/Views: 72,135 Est. Publicity Value: $1,998 (30 sec.) Clip Total: $11,988

here's one carpool that is not recommended for commuters. this car went through a fence before winding up in the bottom of a apartment community's pool. witnesses say they saw two people jump out. one before the car hit the water and another while it was sinking. >>> all right. >>> coming up new at five, political parties like to say they're diverse. everyone under one big tent. >> in the democrats' case that is literally true. we'll take you inside the big tent in the democrat irk national convention and

37 meet the people getting the word out in our digital world. that's new at cent more.but only until september 2nd.for 100 years you've letus brt of your life.now we'd like to invite you to be a part of ours. the gm employee discount...for everyone....for everyone...for everyone. >>> i'm marty levin. here's what's happening right now. day two of the democratic convention. hillary clinton takes center stage. can she convince supporters to back obama? >> communication breakdown. flight delays across the country. we'll tell you what caused the problem and how lindberg field was affected. >>> a new generation of busy working in the big tent home of hundreds of democratic convention bloggers. the news at five starts right now. >>> good evening. i'm susan taylor. thank you for joining us. >>> decision 2008, it is hillary clinton's night tonight at the democratic national convention in denver. suspense building for her speech, will she and can she unify her still- fractured party. steve handlesman is in denver with more. >> reporter: hi, susan, thanks and good afternoon from denver where there's certain to be a big outpouring of sichl though and support tonight for hillary clinton. a lot of democrats here hope she can help channel that energy into the campaign Play Media ahead. hillary clinton checked ow out the Direct Link podium a few hours before her speech. no question she will urge her supporters here in denver and

Entry #26

News 4 at 4pm KVOA (NBC) Tucson, AZ DMA: 68 Aug 26 2008 4:55PM Programming Type: News

Est. Households/Views: 5,772 Est. Publicity Value: $118 (30 sec.) Clip Total: $708

what's really going convention.. you can watch it on t.v. of course we recommend you watch it here on news4. but if you want to know what's going on behind the scenes.. you can also check out the blogs. it's a workspace built inside a tent. but you can hardly say those inside are roughing it. nats we have a blueberry smoothie. we've got a strawberry- raspberry smoothie insidesmoothies, chair massage, wi-fi access, burritos and

38 beerall the things bloggers say they need to work. markos moulitsas/daily kos we need laptops and electricity obviously, but we also need beer. meet the new generation of those covering the political conventionand check out their office. the big tentsponsored in part by google and diggis a short walk from the pepsi center, where most of the democratic convention events are held. it's an eight- thousand square foot, two story structure. and for a one hundred dollar entrance feeit's an office away from the office for political bloggers aaron nelson/alliance for sustainable colorado we have 500 credentialed bloggers representing over 40 states, several different countries, both sides of the aisle including some celebrities. darryl hannah/actor & blogger the internet is an incredible medium. organizers decided to create this filing center for bloggers after being crammed into convention centers in 2004. it's a much need resource for bloggersa group that for the most part don't make much money for their work. like so many, phillip anderson of the albany project dot com couldn't even afford to come to denver. phillip anderson/the albany project the financial challenge was stringing together enough money to do it. he turned to his readers for donationsand was able to make the trip. phillip anderson/the albany Play Media project we raised about 15 hundred Direct Link dollars which is actually the reason i'm able to attend. anderson's readers helped him get to denver. and the big tent is helping himand so many othersget to work. msnbc newsdenver. and be sure to check out our local bloggers... you can find them on our website at kvoa dot com. and for the latest coverage from the democratic national convention... watch nbc nightly news with brian williams live in denver... that's at 5:30 right here on news four. the delegates at the democratic convention carry signs to show their support.... but they also wear their feelings up top... they've got their party hats on. hats in all shapes and sizes. many expressing their feelings through their head gear, with the message spelled out clearly. of course there've got pins featuring barack obama. all kinds of

Entry #27

Eyewitness News 4 at 5 KOB (NBC) Albuquerque, NM DMA: 44

39 Programming Type: News

Est. Households/Views: 53,967 Est. Publicity Value: $646 (30 sec.) Clip Total: $1,292

anderson of the albany project dot com couldn't even afford to come to denver. phillip anderson/the albany project the financial challenge was stringing together enough money to do it. he turned to his readers for donationsand was able to make the trip. phillip anderson/the albany project we raised about 15 hundred dollars which is actually the reason i'm Play Media able to attend. anderson's readers helped Direct Link him get to denver. and the big tent is helping himand so many othersget to work. msnbc newsdenver. for the latest coverage from the d-n-c-- watch nbc nightly news with brian williams-- from denver-- starting tonight at five-30. for complete coverage of the d-n-c-- even the parts not shown by n-b-c--go to election-- dot-k-o- b-do t-com. a frosting drizzled scone may go well with starbucks coffee - - but the chain is introducing some options for customers who want a healthier start to the day. starbucks says multi-grain rolls and oatmeal will be available at its stores starting next week.

Entry #28

KWQC TV6 News at Five KWQC (NBC) Davenport, IA DMA: 96 Aug 26 2008 5:20PM Programming Type: News

Est. Households/Views: 70,484 Est. Publicity Value: $872 (30 sec.) Clip Total: $3,488

was disrupting traffic. today, police are saying none of those arrested were credible threats-- including one man who says his friends were trying to kill obama. the convention has plenty of journalists covering the action, but there's another group, too, as we look inside the "big tent " where bloggers are changing the way the convention is covered. it's a workspace built inside a tent. but you can hardly say those inside are roughing it. nats we have a blueberry smoothie. we've got a strawberry-raspberry smoothie insidesmoothies, chair massage, wi-fi

40 access, burritos and beerall the things bloggers say they need to work. markosdaily kos we need laptops and electricity obviously, but we also need beer. meet the new generation of those covering the political conventionand check out their office. the big tentsponsored in part by google and diggis a short walk from the pepsi center, where most of the democratic convention events are held. it's an eight-thousand square foot, two story structure. and for a one hundred dollar entrance feeit's an office away from the office for political bloggers aaron nelson/alliance for sustainable colorado we have 500 credentialed bloggers representing over 40 states, several Play Media different countries, both sides of the aisle Direct Link including some celebrities. darryl hannah/actor & blogger the internet is an incredible medium. organizers decided to create this filing center for bloggers after being crammed into convention centers in 2004. it's a much need resource for bloggersa group that for the most part don't make much money for their work. like so many, phillip anderson of the albany project dot com couldn't even afford to come to denver. phillip anderson/the albany project the financial challenge was stringing together enough money to do it. he turned to his readers for donationsand was able to make the trip. phillip anderson/the albany project we raised about 15 hundred dollars which is actually the reason i'm able to attend. anderson's readers helped him get to denver. and the big tent is helping himand so many othersget to work. msnbc newsdenver. iowa governor chet culver will speak at the podium tonight. tonight at six, we'll hear from

Entry #29

KXAN Austin News at 5 KXAN (NBC) Austin, TX DMA: 51 Aug 26 2008 5:16PM Programming Type: News

Est. Households/Views: 41,818 Est. Publicity Value: $842 (30 sec.) Clip Total: $3,368

to work.markos moulitsas/daily kos we need laptops and electricity opobviously, but we also need beer. meet the new generation of those covering the ospolitical conventionand check out their office.the big tentsponsored in part by

41 google and diggis a short walk from the pepsi center, where most of the democratic convention events are held. it's an eight-thousand square foot, two story structure. and for a one hundred dollar entrance feeit's an office away from the office for political bloggersaaron nelson/alliance for sustainable coloradowe have 500 rocredentialed bloggers representing over 40 states, several different countries, both sides of the aisle including some celebrities. darryl hannah/actor &; blogger the internet is an incredible medium. organizers decided to create this filing center for bloggers s after being crammed into convention centers in 2004.it's a much needed Play Media resource for bloggersa group that for the Direct Link most part don't make much money for their work. like so many, philip anderson of the albany project dot com couldn't even afford to come to denver.phillip anderson/the ipalbany projectthe financial challenge was stringing together enough money to do it.he turned to his readers for donationsand was able to make the trip.we raised about 15 hundred dollars which is actually the reason i'm able to attend. anderson's readers helped him get to denver. and the big tent is helping himand so many othersget to work.msnbc newsdenver. 3 3 you can see more reporting from mara at nightly-dot- msnbc- com...tonight a report on hillary supporters in denver. how do they feel about supporting elobama at the d-n-c? and for the latest coverage from the big event, watch nbc nightly news with brian williams live in denver at 5:30.in 3 3 online now at kxan dot com...catch up anwith local bloggers at the convention. their blogs are linked to our coverage at texas politics dot tv and you can find a link to that on the front page of kxan- dot-com. 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3

Entry #30

NBC 5 Chicago News at 5:00 WMAQ (NBC) Chicago, IL DMA: 3 Aug 26 2008 5:15PM Programming Type: News

Est. Households/Views: 157,213 Est. Publicity Value: $2,840 (30 sec.) Clip Total: $11,360

everyone. >>> this 2008 democratic national convention is bringing with it something new? it's a big tent at the

42 democratic national convention where inside hundreds of people are busy blogging. here's nbc's morris gauvipauco with tonight's insider report. >> reporter: it's a work space built inside a tent but you can hardly say those inside are roughing it. inside movies, relaxers, beer. all things bloggers need to work. >> we need laptops and we need beer. >> reporter: meet the new generation of those covering the new generation and check out their office. it's a short walk from the pepsi center, where most of the democratic convention events are held. 8,000 square foot, two-story structure and for $100 entrance fee, it's an office away from the office for political bloggers. >> we have 500 convention bloggers representing over 40 states, several different countries. both sides of the aisle. >> reporter: including some celebrities. >> the internet is an incredible medium. >> reporter: organizers decided to create this filing center for bloggers after being crammed into convention centers in 2004. it's a much-needed research for bloggers, a fwroup for the most part don't make much money for their work. like so many, philip anderson couldn't even afford to come to denver. >> we raised about $1,500, which is really the reason i'm able to attend. >> reporter: anderson's readers helped him get to denver and the Play Media big tent is helping him and so many Direct Link others get to work. >> keep it here for continuing coverage with brian williams live from

Entry #31

Action News 5 at 5pm WMC (NBC) Memphis, TN DMA: 47 Aug 26 2008 5:15PM Programming Type: News

Est. Households/Views: 96,094 Est. Publicity Value: $1,053 (30 sec.) Clip Total: $4,212

her supporters. 2:55 shelby county commissioner sidney chism says even though he is a hillary clinton supporter and a pledged clinton delegate...he thinks a floor vote would be divisive and shouldn't happen. 1:15 i'm a strong clinton supporter, however the race is over with, we need to come together and unite behind the winner. 1:25 a inner who managed to beat the womaconsidered the democratic favorite at the start of the

43 race. you can watch senator clinton's speech tonight right here on wmc-tv-5. nbc coverage begins tonight at 9 o'clock. reporting live in studio...lori brown... action news 5. meet the new generation of those covering the political convention...and check out the web blogger's office! inside " the big tent "...smoothies, chair massage, wi-fi access, burritos and beer.all the things bloggers say they need to work. sponsored partly by google and digg... this tent is an eight-thousand square foot two-story structur a much needed resource for a group that for the most part don't make much money for their work. you can find democratic convention Play Media links at wmctv-dot-com. on our website Direct Link you can watch live coverage from msnbc all day long, get the latest election news and use oqr "select a candidate" tool to help you decide which one is right for you. the links can be found above the top stories box on our home page. time is running out! there are ousands of people in shelby county eligible for the economic stimulus check...but they haven't filed for it yet. more than 16-thousand shelby county residents who receive social security and va benefits need to file a 2007 federal income tax return to claim their payment. the deadline is october 15th. severalemphis organizations are partnering with the irs to make sure local retirees, disabled vets and low-income workers get help filing for the economic stimulus

Entry #32

News at 6:00 WIS (NBC) Columbia, SC DMA: 81 Aug 26 2008 6:12PM Programming Type: News

Est. Households/Views: 84,968 Est. Publicity Value: $1,397 (30 sec.) Clip Total: $8,382

>>> welcome back, tonight most of the talk in the mile high city is about senator hillary rodham clinton as she prepares for her big moment. >>> julia send us this e- mail and she's one of the delegates at the convention. she said i still have not witnessed any divide between senator hillary rodham clinton and senator barack obama supporters. i am interested to hear what senator hillary rodham clinton has to say tonight to further unite the party. lots

44 of people are sharing their insights about what it is like to be on that floor in denver. hundreds of them are internet bloggers. >> if you can land the job it works. david stanton gives us a look behind the scenes to see what it is like to be an internet blogger. >> reporter: you can hardly say those inside are roughing it. inside smooths chairs massage all the things bloggers say they need to work. meet the new generation of those covering the political convention and check out their office. the big tent sponsored by google is a short walk from the pepsi stern. it is an 8,000 square foot two story stucture and for a $100 entrance fee, it is an office away from the office for political bloggers. >> we have bloggers representing several different countries on both sides of the aisle. >> reporter: organizers decided to create this feeling system for bloggers after they were crammed into this area in 2004. it is a much needed area for the bloggers and they don't make much money for their work. the albany project could not even afford to come to denver. he turned to his readers for donations and was able to make the trip. >> i raised about $1,500 and that the reason i am able to attend. >> reporter: the big tend is helping him and many others get to work. david stanton wis news 10. >>> and tonight Play Media senator hillary rodham clinton supporters, Direct Link how do they feel about supporting senator barack obama at the national convention? i will have that and the latest which begins at 6:30. >> well the folks in the weather center had a convention of their own. >>> brooks garner is up next with a look at this 3d storm

Entry #33

NBC 5 Chicago News at 5:00 WMAQ (NBC) Chicago, IL DMA: 3 Aug 26 2008 5:11PM Programming Type: News

Est. Households/Views: 157,213 Est. Publicity Value: $2,840 (30 sec.) Clip Total: $5,680

with this engineering program that our achievement will increase over more than what it is today. >> reporter: art noerlen, nbc 5 news. >> our thanks to art. >>> chicago school ceo arnie duncan pitches in Play Media to help with the construction of a new Direct Link

45 school playground. duncan was run by his family and community members at the polaris charter school. chicago public schools are being employed by the playground pilots program, which completed more than 150 similar playground projects. >> very nice program. meet the faces behind the website. we go inside the big tent where hundreds of bloggers are covering the democratic convention next on nbc 5. >>> later, a splashing good

Entry #34

KXAN Austin News at 5 KXAN (NBC) Austin, TX DMA: 51 Aug 26 2008 5:09PM Programming Type: News

Est. Households/Views: 41,818 Est. Publicity Value: $842 (30 sec.) Clip Total: $1,684

stream of the democratic national convention, as well as compare the candidates on the issues. 3 3 our political coverage continues later on kxan austin news at five.we'll take you inside the Play Media "big tent " where hundreds of political Direct Link bloggers are hard at work. work. .3 and southwest airlines is finally feeling the pinch.how they expect to keep up with high gas prices. prices."you're watching kxan nbc austin, with robert hadlock, michelle valles, and first warning weather with jim spencer. your news at 5 continues." oboche

Entry #35

13WHAM News at 6:00 WHAM (ABC) Rochester, NY DMA: 78 Aug 26 2008 6:04PM Programming Type: News

Est. Households/Views: 60,448 Est. Publicity Value: $1,073 (30 sec.) Clip Total: $4,292

from william bastuk to charges he raped a 16-year-old girl last year. she claims he lured her into a storage area at the rochester got club. he faces up to us -- 25 years in prison if convicted. he is out on bail. >> it is now named the big tent . it is a circus of sorts. getting out the

46 information for the democratic national convention. hundreds of people are covering politics. as jane flashed tells us that coverage has gone to the blogs and creating a case of voter beware. >> you can watch michelle obama at check-in. this guy wants to tell you who to vote for and why and she is covering the convention for the playboy channel. >> it is part of the insanity of the big tent . four years ago the democratic convention attracted 30 bloggers. now there are several hundred. >> if you are a political junkie this is the big tent website. you can go to it and click on live streaming video. it carries links to blogs. not all are video blogs. the campaign's recognize the Play Media value of barack internet exposure. Direct Link whether they are biased or parody's. it puts the burden on people who get their internet to differentiate between information and is. the younger audience -- the number the audience, the more blurred the line. >> we have to be careful. wikipedia is made up of people who contribute. the editing process i that is not always there. >> you do have to take one more step to say where is this information coming from? this had a potential bias? people do not want to do that. it wants to seek out people with their ideas to view things the same as they do.

Entry #36

NBC 5 Chicago News at 4:30 WMAQ (NBC) Chicago, IL DMA: 3 Aug 26 2008 4:52PM Programming Type: News

Est. Households/Views: 92,362 Est. Publicity Value: $1,649 (30 sec.) Clip Total: $3,298

70s and east winds around 10. weather- plus five-day forecast, 86 on thursday and showers and thunderstorms after that, it is dry all the way through the holiday weekend. beautiful weekend coming up. Play Media bob, marianne, back to you. >> i like it. Direct Link >>> warm labor day, looks like. >> good stuff. >>> coming up -- one more good thing -- >> i know you have a birthday friday. we were going to have a but the fire marshal said, lighting that many candles is a fire hazard. >> mccain tries to court the youth vote with some laughs. >>> and go inside the big tent at the democratic national convention, while

47 political bloggers go to work and

Entry #37

NBC 30 CT News at 5:30 WVIT (NBC) Hartford & New Haven, CT DMA: 29 Aug 26 2008 5:44PM Programming Type: News

Est. Households/Views: 59,259 Est. Publicity Value: $919 (30 sec.) Clip Total: $5,514

powerful and rousing speech of support for obama/biden from a person who cares deeply about this country." country." courtney also spoke about 's support for john mccain... and speculation that the democrat could be the republican running mate.------"it's awkward, particularly in the connecticut delegation, where we have a lot of veteran democrats who've worked with senator lieberman over the years and who, understanding again the importance of this election are having a hard time understanding where he is. ---we have more of the courtney interview on nbc30.com... click on links mentioned on air. 4-years ago .... 35 - bloggers attended the democr national convention.. in boston.this year... 400- bloggers are in denver! the d-n-c has even built a special "tent".. for them to work... and play.nbc's ...mara schiavo campo introduces us... to the newest generation ... of political writers. writers. it's a workspace built inside a tent. but you can hardly say those inside are roughing it. natswe have a blueberry smoothie. we've got a strawberry- raspberry smoothie insidesmoothies, chair massage, wi-fi access, burritos and beerall the things bloggers say they need to work.markos moulitsas/daily kos we need laptops and electricity obviously, but we also need beer. meet the new generation of those covering the political conventionand check out their office.the big tentsponsored in part by google and diggis a short walk from the pepsi center, Play Media where most of the democratic convention Direct Link events are held. it's an eight-thousand square foot, two story structure. and for a one hundred dollar entrance feeit's an office away from the office for political bloggersaaron nelson/alliance for sustainable coloradowe have 500 credentialed bloggers representing over 40 states, several different countries, both

48 sides of the aisle including some celebrities. darryl hannah/actor &; blogger the internet is an incredible medium. organizers decided to create this filing center for bloggers after being crammed into convention centers in 2004.it's a much need resource for bloggersa group that for the most part don't make mu money for their work. like so many, phillip anderson of the albany project dot com couldn't even afford to come to denver.phillip anderson/the albany projectthe financial challenge was stringing together enough money to do it.he turned to his readers for donationsand was able to make the trip. phillip anderson/the albany projectwe raised about 15 hundred dollars which is actually the reason i'm able to attend.anderson's readers helped him get to denver. and the big tent is helphimand so many othersget to work.mara schiavocampo, msnbc newsdenver. ... will have continuing coverage of the convention ... through-out the week.tonight on nightly news at 6:30... how do hillary clinton supporters ...in denver ... feel about supporting barack obama? they're the numbers that are america's embarassment.the census bureau says the poverty rate held steady at 12-and-a- half percent last year. that means more than 37-million americans were living in poverty.and more

Entry #38

11 News at 5 WBAL (NBC) Baltimore, MD DMA: 24 Aug 26 2008 5:34PM Programming Type: News

Est. Households/Views: 127,898 Est. Publicity Value: $2,602 (30 sec.) Clip Total: $10,408

deliver a speech focusing on party unity and will urge her supporters to back barack obama for president. speaks to our operator meanwhile, political blunders are staking their claim like never before -- meanwhile, political and bloggers are staking their claim. >> it is a work space built inside a tent, but you can hardly say those inside are roughing it. >> we have smoothies. >> inside, chair massages, internet access, and beer, all of the things bloggers say they

49 need to work. meet the new generation of those covering the political convention and check out their office. the big tent , sponsored by google, is a short walk from the pepsi center, where most of the events are held. it is an 8000 square foot,- doppler -- two-story structure. they are including celebrities. >> the internet is incredible. >> organizers decided to create this after being crammed into convention centers in 2004. it is a much needed resource for bloggers, who for the most part do not make much money for their work. he could not even afford to come to denver. >> the challenge was putting enough money together to do it. >> the turn to his readers for donations Play Media and he was able to make the trip. >> i Direct Link made about $1,500, which is the reason i am able to attend. >> his readers help him to get to denver, and the big tent is helping him and so many others get to work. >>> city development of --

Entry #39

News 5 at 5:30 WLWT (NBC) Cincinnati, OH DMA: 33 Aug 26 2008 5:32PM Programming Type: News

Est. Households/Views: 43,646 Est. Publicity Value: $565 (30 sec.) Clip Total: $3,390

will bring a speech that he gave in 2002") after a second look.. you'll notice the ad is actually from john mccain. and the implied message... has clinton outraged. ("and let me state what i think about their tactics and these ads. i'm hillary clinton and i do not approve that message.") and the mccain camp.. isn't stopping there. another ad.. shows a democrat who ... for the first time ever... decided to vote republican. they're growing by the minute... and their impact can't be ignored. we're talking about political web- bloggers... four years ago... you could only find 35 at the convention. but tonight... there are hundreds! and they're getting the royal treatment. it's a workspace built inside a tent. but you can hardly say those inside are roughing it. nats we have a blueberry smoothie. we've got a strawberry-raspberry smoothie inside, smoothies ... chair massages... wi- fi access... burritos and booze! all the things bloggers say they need to work.

50 markos moulitsas/daily kos we need laptops and electricity obviously, but we also need beer. it's the new, and growing, generation of those covering the political convention ... and this is their office. the big tent ... sponsored in part by google... is a short walk from the pepsi center... that's where most of the democratic convention events are held. it's an eight- thousand square foot... two story structure. and for a one hundred dollar entrance fee... it's an office away from the office for political bloggers aaron nelson/alliance for sustainable colorado we have 500 credentialed bloggers representing over 40 states, several different countries, both sides of the aisle Play Media that even includes some celebrities. darryl Direct Link hannah/actor/blogger the internet is an incredible medium. organizers decided to create this workspace for bloggers ... after a crammed convention in 2004. it's a much needed resource for bloggers... a group that, for the most part, doesn't make much money. phillip anderson/the albany project the financial challenge was stringing together enough money to do it. phillip anderson, of the albany project- dot-com, turned to his readers for donations... phillip anderson/the albany project we raised about 15 hundred dollars which is actually the reason i'm able to attend. anderson's readers helped him get to denver. and the big tent is helping him and so many others get to work. expect much more live coverage of the democratic national convention... tonight... on n-b-c nightly news with brian williams.. right after news five at six. the d-n-c, is in the spotlight... but that doesn't mean john mccain is hiding out. he sat down with jay leno last night... just days before his 72nd birthday. (i know you have a birthday friday... thank you for mentioning that. we were going to have a cake, but the fire marshall says that many candles... laughter") it was mccain's 13th appearance on the tonight show... and he spent much of the time... trading jokes... about how many houses he owns. that's after a hiccup last week... where he admitted to a reporter... he wasn't sure how many properties .. were in his family's name. mccain, who has yet to announce his running mate.. hinted to a certain someone last night.

Entry #40

News 8 at Five

51 DMA: 39 Aug 26 2008 5:24PM Programming Type: News

Est. Households/Views: 80,889 Est. Publicity Value: $1,599 (30 sec.) Clip Total: $9,594

back to decision 2008...and how the digital age is playing a major role in the democratic national convention. convention.right now we're going inside " the big tent " at the democratic national convention . where political bloggers go to work and play. play. pkg script:it's a workspace built inside a tent. but you can hardly say those inside are roughing it.natswe have a blueberry smoothie. we've got a strawberry-raspberry smoothieinsidesmoothies, chair massage, wi-fi access, burritos and beerall the things bloggers say they need to work.markos moulitsas/daily kos we need laptops and electricity obviously, but we also need beer. meet the new generation of those covering the political conventionand check out their office.the big tentsponsored in part by google and diggis a short walk from the pepsi center, where most of the democratic convention events are held. it's an eight-thousand square foot, two story structure. and for a one hundred dollar entrance feeit's an office away from the office for political bloggersaaron nelson/alliance for sustainable coloradowe have 500 credentialed bloggers representing over 40 states, several different countries, both sides of the aisleincluding some celebrities.darryl hannah/actor & bloggerthe internet is an incredible medium. organizers decided to create this filing center for bloggers after being crammed into convention centers in 2004.it's a much needed resource for bloggersa group that for the most part don't make much money for their work. like so many, phillip anderson of the Play Media albany project dot com couldn't even Direct Link afford to come to denver.phillip anderson/the albany projectthe financial challenge was stringing together enough money to do it.he turned to his readers for donationsand was able to make the trip.phillip anderson/the albany projectwe raised about 15 which is actually the reason i'm able to attend.anderson's readers helped him get to denver. and the big tent is helping himand so many othersget to work.msnbc newsdenver.

52 convention coverage continuing on nbc tonight.nightly news will have more right after 24 hour news 8 at six.then, 24 hour news 8's rick albin will have a breakdown of the events at 10 on wxsp and 11 on and wood.

Entry #41

First at Five WPTZ (NBC) Burlington, VT DMA: 92 Aug 26 2008 5:21PM Programming Type: News

Est. Households/Views: 35,837 Est. Publicity Value: $624 (30 sec.) Clip Total: $2,496

are we i didn't know i looked like that oprah then how this couple revved up their sex life you went all the way plus from paycheck to paycheck to a 340 million fortune fun and gayle and i meet nice to meet you opra and kklyy report we go inside the democratic national convention where political bloggers go to work and play mara schiavocampo reports it's a workspace built inside a tent but you can hardly say those inside are roughing it nats we have a blueberry smoothie we've got a strawberry raspberry smoothie insidesmoothies chair massage wi fi access burritos and beerall the things bloggers say they need to work markos moulitsas daily kos we need laptops and electricity obviously but we also need beer meet the new generation of those covering the political conventionand check out their office the big tentsponsored in part by google and diggis a short walk from the pepsi center where most of the democratic convention events are held it's an eight thousand square foot two story structure and for a one hundred dollar entrance feeit's an office away from the office for political bloggers aaron nelson alliance for sustainable colorado we have 500 credentialed bloggers representing over 40 states several different countries both sides of the aisle including some celebrities darryl hannah actor blogger the internet is an incredible medium organizers decided to create this filing center for bloggers after being crammed into convention centers in 2004 it's a much needed resource for bloggersa group that for the most part don't make much money for their work like so many phillip anderson of the albany project dot com couldn't even afford to come to denver phillip hundred dollars which is actually the reason i'm able to attend anderson's readers helped him get to denver and the big tent is helping himand so many othersget to work msnbc newsdenver denver at 6 30 collecting garbage it's a dirty job but someone has to do it when we

Entry #42

Today's TMJ4 News Live at 4:00 WTMJ (NBC) Milwaukee, WI DMA: 34 Aug 26 2008 4:06PM Programming Type: News

Est. Households/Views: 46,923 Est. Publicity Value: $766 (30 sec.) Clip Total: $4,596

convention.it's going on right now in

53 denver, colorado. governor doyle is there. he'll address the crowd around 5:30 our time. the governor is expected to talk about ways to help grow the nation's economy and create jobs. the biggest buzz is around tonight's speaker- hillary rodham clinton. the former presidential candidate is expected to draw a lot of at attention, especially from those still upset she's not the nominee. we should note, clinton isn't tonight's keynote speaker. that will be former virginia governor mark warner. now we go inside " the big tent " at the democratic national convention . . where political bloggers go to work and play. mara scavo- campo reports. it's a workspace built inside a tent. but you can hardly say those inside areroughing it. natswe have a blueberry smoothie. we've got a strawberry-raspberry smoothiea insideasmoothies, chair massage, wi-fi access, burritos and beeraall the thingsbloggers say they need to work.markos moulitsas/daily koswe need laptops and electricity obviously, but we also need beer.meet the new generation of those covering the political conventionaand checkout their office.the big tentasponsored in part by google and diggais a short walk from thepepsi center, where most of the democratic convention events are held. it's an eight-thousand square foot, two story structure. and for a one hundreddollar entrance feeait's an office away from the office for political bloggersaaaron nelson/alliance for sustainable coloradowe have 500 credentialed bloggers representing over 40 states, several different countries, both sides of the aislea aincluding some celebrities. darryl hannah/actor & blogger the internet is an incredible medium.organizers decided to create this filing cenfor bloggers after being crammed into convention centers in 2004.it's a much need resource for bloggersaa group that for the most part don't make much money for their work. like so many, phillip anderson of the albany project dot com couldn't even afford to come to Play Media denver.phillip anderson/the albany Direct Link projectthe financial challenge was stringing together enough money to do it. he turned to his readers for donationsaand was able to make the trip.phillip anderson/the albany projectwe raised about 15 hundred dollars which is actually the reason i'm able to attend.anderson's readers helped him get to denver. and the big tent is helpinghimaand so many othersaget to work. for the latest coverage from the

54 dnc, watch nbc nightly news with brian williams live in denver at 5:30 on today's tmj4. our political insiders- jeff fleming and charlie sykes will join us in the studio for live at five and six. political conventions aren't àallà business.they're more like a celebration that give delegates a chance to cut loose!so, for your enjoyment, we present "the democratic national convention dancers."

Entry #43

First at 4 WCMH (NBC) Columbus, OH DMA: 32 Aug 26 2008 4:34PM Programming Type: News

Est. Households/Views: 35,996 Est. Publicity Value: $1,028 (30 sec.) Clip Total: $4,112

number for the franklin county dog shelter. >>> the democrats are at their convention in denver this week. political bloggers go to work and to play. it's a work space of built inside a tent but you can hardly say those inside are roughing it. >> a blueberry smoothie. >> inside smoothies, chair massage and burritos and beer. all the things bloggers say they need to work. >> laptops and electricity obviously and also beer. >> check out their office. the big tent sponsored in part by google and -- is a short walk from the pepsi center. it's an 8,000-square-foot two story structure and for $100 $100 it's an office away from the office for political bloggers. >> we have 500 bloggers representing over 40 states and several countries. >> including some celebrities. >> the internet is incredible. >> Play Media organizers decided to create this filing Direct Link center for blogs after being crammed into the convention center in 2004. it's a much needed resource for the bloggers. philip anderson couldn't even afford to come to denver. >> the challenge was scraping together enough money to do it. >> he turned to his readers for donations and was able to make trip. >> that was the reason i was able to attend. >> anderson's readers helped him get to denver and the big tent is helping him and so many others get to work. >> and you can head to nbc4 blogs too. feel free to weigh in and leave your comments. let's get you caught on up some

55 Entry #44

News 4 at 4 WRC (NBC) Washington, DC DMA: 9 Aug 26 2008 4:28PM Programming Type: News

Est. Households/Views: 89,709 Est. Publicity Value: $2,180 (30 sec.) Clip Total: $17,440

1p1 >>> a trip inside the big tent of the democratic national convention. that's where the political bloggers go to work and play. >> welcome back. i'm wendy rieger sitting in for pat lawson muse. >> i'm jim handly. we will have much more on the convention in just a bit. but first, more on the breaking news we brought you at the top of the newscast. the problem that's causing flight delays across the country. this is a live picture from and the man sharing the ticket with barack obama, senator , speaking tomorrow night along with former president bill clinton. all of this, of course, leading up to thursday when obama is expected to accept his party's presidential nomination. >>> now a look at the big tent there. the special place where political bloggers gather to weigh in on convention happening. >> digital correspondent has more in today's insider report. >> reporter: it is a work space built inside of a tent. you can hardly say those inside are rocking it. inside, smoothies, chair massage, burritos, beer. all the things bloggers say they need to work. >> laptops, electricity. beer. >> reporter: meet the new generation of those covering the political convention. and check out their office. the big tent sponsored in part by google and dig is the short walk from the pepsi center where most of the democratic convention events are held. it is an 8 thousand-square foot two-story structure. for $100 entrance fee, it is an office away from the office. political bloggers. >> 500 bloggers. representing over 40 states. several different countries. both sides of the aisle. >> reporter: including some celebrities. >> internet is this incredible media. >> reporter: organizers decided to create this center for bloggers after being crammed in the convention centers in 2004. a much-needed resource for bloggers. for the most part, they don't make much money for their work. like so many, philip

56 anderson of the albanyproject.com couldn't even afford to come to denver. >> really didn't have enough money. >> reporter: turned to his readers for donations and was able to make the trip. >> raised about $1,500. which is, you know, really the reason i am able to attend. >> reporter: anderson's readers helped him get to denver and the big tent is helping him and so many others get to work. >> you will also find the latest convention coverage online at nightly.ms.nbc.com. a report on hillary clinton loyalists in denver. how do they f about supporting barack obama at the convention? coming up at the top of the hour wleeshgs have a live update from Play Media news 4's steve handelsman as all eyes Direct Link turn to hillary clinton. and what she will say tonight's prime time address. >>> despite evidence of his german background, the kidnapping suspect who calls himself clark rockefeller says he believes that he grew up in . not in germany. and he made that comment in an exclusive jailhouse interview with nbc's natalie morales a suggested he suffers from partial amnesia and only remembers snippets of his life here in the states. >> there are certain things that i haven't forgotten. for example, the garbage truck in new york. i rember that very clearly. i remember the taxi strikes. i rember going to the zoo in central park.

Entry #45

Noon News KRXI (Fox) Reno, NV DMA: 110 Aug 26 2008 12:00PM Programming Type: News

Est. Households/Views: 622 Est. Publicity Value: $19 (30 sec.) Clip Total: $38

>>> at noon, the spotlight will be on hillary clinton tonight at the democratic national convention as she tries to bring delegates into the big tent . >>> an amber alert issued for two young girls has Play Media ended within the last hour. we'll have Direct Link details coming up. >>> and nervous people at marin county beach after a recent shark sighting. we'll have more coming up at noon. >>> gooch. topping our news this noontime, another much- anticipated speech is on tap at the democratic national convention. while

57 there there is a lot of

Entry #46

MSNBC News Live MSNBC (MSNBC) National Programming, DMA: 0 Aug 26 2008 10:55AM Programming Type: News

Est. Households/Views: 181,115 Est. Publicity Value: $2,874 (30 sec.) Clip Total: $11,496

>> i was just wondering because you were telling me yesterday that the -- >> all right. actually, the tent is in the ukraine, apparently. because there's quite a delay. we're going to stop talking and throw it to you. three, two, one. go! >> okay. i'll take it from here. this year, bloggers are working from inside a tent, but you can hardly say that they're roughing it. it's called the big tent and it's an office for about 500 bloggers from all over the world. it's an 8,000 square foot, two-story office that includes a lounge area, with smoothies and massages, a work space area with outlets and wi-fi and a theater space where panel discussions are held. they even serve beer and burr it ohs. the tent is sponsored in part by google. organizers say they wanted to create something totally Play Media independent from the official convention. Direct Link >> we're bypassing the gatekeepers, and the parties in a way are gatekeepers. they credentialed a large number of bloggers, a couple hundred, my team included. but we wanted to do our own thing, independent of the party so we're not beholden to the party, whatever the whims may be, doesn't matter. we're going to do our own thing. >> now, bloggers have to pay a $100 fee to get their credentials, but that includes all the beer and wi-fi they want. now, there is something that they want that they're not getting. mika, when i was there yesterday, they had a very special request. they want you to come see them. you have a big fan base over there. you should head to the google tent. >> oh, i'd love to see that. apparently they want me to come visit. >> probably so. all right. thank you so much. maria, live from the ukraine in kiev. satellite trucks in tblisi. there's a little delay. that will do it for this special edition of "morning joe." reverend, do you have your own blog? >> yes,

58 actually. >> really? >> what is it? >> my son put it up. i don't know. >> there you go. what about you? >> i'm blogging all this week. >> great.

Entry #47

News Channel 13 at 10 KRDO (ABC) Colorado Springs, CO DMA: 93 Aug 25 2008 10:21PM Programming Type: News

Est. Households/Views: 18,387 Est. Publicity Value: $93 (30 sec.) Clip Total: $186

there are rouhgly 15- thousand members of the media. that's more than those covering the beijing olympics the past two weeks. not only that.. but there's a Play Media growing segment of online writers... Direct Link bloggers. roughly 300 of them. we caught up with one this morning. her name is bbie marquez... in addition to being a delegate... she writes for what's called the "green chile democrats" blog. she joins the other 60 latino bloggers in the big tent , to give what she calls a "boots to the ground" view of what's going on here at the dnc. debbie marquez blogger sot 03:09:30-:38 "we're not writers. we can be biased. we can have an editorial opinion, we don't have to get all sides, although to be fair, we sometimes do. tomorrow... we'll take you inside the big tent of bloggers. we'll show you what they're seeing, through their eyes.

Entry #48

CBS4 The Denver Convention KCNC (CBS) Denver, CO DMA: 18 Aug 25 2008 6:48PM Programming Type: Community News

Est. Households/Views: 82,623 Est. Publicity Value: $1,860 (30 sec.) Clip Total: $7,440

>>> the epicenter of journalism may be the big tent set up in the alliance center parking lot in lodo. >> blogers representing more than 40 states and several countries are generating conversation for the world. >> the big tent is a two- story 8,000 square foot

59 temporary structure. >> reporter: at 15th and winecube. a two story tent emerged from the ground up. >> we went through three schools of cat 5 cabling, each school is approximately 2500 feet. >> reporter: it's sole purpose a place to disseminate information. here the bloggers input the happenings and send information out to the readers all over the world. >> the tent is extremely helpful. >> reporter: phillip anderson is a blogger for a website called the albany project. >> we have say lot of our state representatives and senators here. i'm going to be talking to them about their experiences here. >> reporter: also on level one, the google lounge. a place to upload youtube video. Play Media >> what we have here, it's a new tool, Direct Link you just put in your address and we'll go into the database to find where all the inhabitants of your address are registered. >> reporter: level two, the dig stage, a political platform. >> from an oil based economy -- >> reporter: the big tent is the center of the blogosphere. andrea lopez, 4 news. >>> coming up next, greg moody takes us to the five points

Entry #49

News Channel 13 at 6 KRDO (ABC) Colorado Springs, CO DMA: 93 Aug 25 2008 6:03PM Programming Type: News

Est. Households/Views: 16,069 Est. Publicity Value: $219 (30 sec.) Clip Total: $438

thousand members of the media. that's more than those covering the beijing olympics the past two weeks. not only that.. but there's a growing segment of Play Media online writers... bloggers. roughly 300 of Direct Link them. we caught up with one this morning. her name is debbie marquez... in addition to being a delegate... she writes for what's called the "green chile democrats" blog. she joins the other 60 latino bloggers in the big tent , to give what she calls a "boots to the ground" view of what's going on here at the dnc. sot 03:09:30-:38 "we're not writers. we can be biased. we can have an editorial opinion, we don't have to get all sides, although to be fair, we sometimes do. tomorrow... we'll take you inside the big tent of bloggers. we'll show you what

60 they're seeing, through their eyes. of course, debbie isn't the only one blogging from the dnc. you can visit our website krdo-dot-com for live blogs from all of our people up in denver. with more than reporters on scene... we're covering the convention from every angle.

Entry #50

The Situation Room CNN (CNN) National Programming, DMA: 0 Aug 25 2008 5:47PM Programming Type: News

Est. Households/Views: 926,036 Est. Publicity Value: $5,748 (30 sec.) Clip Total: $11,496

resident of argentina. he will be posting updates armed with a laptop and digital camera. you can follow these sites where people are uploading the video. or on the Play Media individual blogs, that these bloggers who Direct Link are down there, whether from washington state, to south carolina, and these are people not with the news organization, they've used their own funds to get here. tim kelly of south carolina saying he cashed in all his frequent flier miles. it's not just the 55 bloggers there on the floor, there's plenty more media around you. and at the big tent where 300 credential bloggers there are following everything that's going on outside. wolf? >> all right. very interesting. thanks very much, abbi, for that. >>> madonna's latest concert tour, the john mccain mccain campaign is calling it outrageous. get ready, we'll show you. >>> security is tight here in denver. what it takes to keep the democratic national convention safe.

Entry #51

News2 at Eleven KWGN (CW) Denver, CO DMA: 18 Aug 25 2008 11:52AM Programming Type: News

Est. Households/Views: 14,801 Est. Publicity Value: $289 (30 sec.) Clip Total: $1,156

among the thousands of media members in town for the d-n-c are a record number of bloggers... and as a sign of their

61 growing influence--they' ve got their own headquarters in lo-do. eli stokols takes us inside " the big tent ". this two-story tent on wynkoop street is the capitol of the blogos..ere.a t least for the next four days. 53:29-45 david sirota, progressive author: "this is the most official that the and the blogosphere has ever been." 8-thousand square feet ...for the hundreds who make their opinions known on-line. 54:16-19 sirota: "i think the more small "d" democracy the better." 49:45- 53 markos moulitsas, dailykos founder: it's a democratizatio n of the media. there's no one person or entity or company monopolizing that flow of information." markos moulitsas is the founder of dailykos...one of the most read and influential liberal blogs...which have been more critical of barack obama since the primaries have ended. 49:20-41 markos moulitsas, dailykos founder: "there's been political decisions made in order to improve his chances of winning. that doesn't mean he's moving to the center; it may be a move to negate a republican line of attack. at the end of the day, we agree with barack obama 95 percent of the time. we're not going to be shy when we disagree." this week, as dems look to bring more voters into their big tent...those in this big tent will be making sure they don't stray too far from Play Media the . 55:29-37 david sirota, Direct Link progressive author: "this is about making sure a progressive agenda is a part of this convention--an d that politicians' feet are held to the fire." in denver, eli stokols, news2. more than 300 bloggers will be working out of the big tent . the temporary structure will be taken down when the d-n-c is over.

Entry #52

9News 6am KUSA (NBC) Denver, CO DMA: 18 Aug 25 2008 6:42AM Programming Type: News

Est. Households/Views: 169,267 Est. Publicity Value: $3,462 (30 sec.) Clip Total: $6,924

we talked about the traditional media outlets. 15,000 have been credentialed. it includes 120 bloggers that have been credentialed by the dnc committee. there are more outside of that. the big tent a Play Media few blocks from downtown that is

62 Direct Link sponsored by google, there are 500 bloggers credentialed for that. they had 3,000 applications from bloggers just using that facility alone. they had to turn most of them away because of the fire codes. a lot of interest from all sorts of people >> lots of people are watching this for sure. hopefully they won't screw it up. that's the bottom line, isn't it >> you know what, gary, i think you summarized the 2 1/2 minutes perfectly, don't screw it up. see you in a bit >> stay with us for continuing coverage of the democratic national convention here on channel 9 until 7:00 then over to my 20 between 7:00 and 9:00. of course, you can find all sorts of updates and news stories on 9news.com any time

Entry #53

America's Nightly Scoreboard FBN (FBN) National Programming, DMA: 0 Aug 22 2008 10:05PM Programming Type: Bus./financial

like barack obama suggests. >> jon, where do we go from here? we keep hearing how powerful the internet is, and certainly it has with respect to raising money, but a company like google, where do they go from here? >> google wants to show washington we're on your side. they don't really care who wins, they want to show washington in general, we're on your side, we're in favor of your policies. they were afraid of the future, microsoft, what happened to them years ago with clinton busting them up. they're afraid of the future being perceived to be a monopoly. >> the way it works in washington, david, is everyone sort of lobbies capitol hill. are the tables turning a little bit? do you find republicans may have to lobby silicon valley? >> well, i think it's more just citizens having a larger, pronounced voice. all of the citizen activists, the bloggers, google is doing a good job with the big tent and also in Play Media minneapolis they're going to be doing Direct Link quite a bit out there for us out there. so i think what it shows you is that normal everyday citizens are having a real impact even just as much as a blogger, or i'm sorry, just as much as a lobbyist here in washington, d.c. what google is doing, i know the analyst is going after them pretty hard, but what they're actually

63 trying to do is be a part of what's happening. google is a serious player in business, they're a serious player in politics, and they just want to be a part offingsomething wonderful and helping transform democracy, and they're doing so through technology. >> okay, great. thanks for joining us. illustrating even more the influence of technology and the internet, senator obama's decision to text his supporters naming his running mate, contributor susan estrich, she's in los angeles, steve malzberg, and in washington james kotecki, video blogger for politico.com.

Entry #54

America's Nightly Scoreboard FBN (FBN) National Programming, DMA: 0 Aug 22 2008 7:05PM Programming Type: Bus./financial

charles: so, john, where do we from here with this whole trend? we keep hearing how powerful internet is. certainly it has been with respect to raising money. company like google, where do they go from here? >> again google wants to show washington, we're on your side obama or mccain wins. they don't really care. management doesn't really care. they want to show washington in general, we're on your side. we're in favor of your policies. they are afraid of the future soft, what happened to them ten years ago with clinton how they got busted. afraid the future being a monopoly being perceived as monopoly. >> the way it works in washington, david, everyone sort of lobbies capitol hill but, are the tables turning a little bit? find republicans may have to lobby silicon valley? >> well, i think it's more just citizens having a larger pronounced voice. i mean all the citizen activists, bloggers, google is doing Play Media a, good job with the big tent and also in Direct Link minute nap they will be doing quite a bit out there for us who will be out there. i think what it shows you that normal, everyday citizens are having a real impact even just as much as blogger, i'm sorry, just as much as lobbyist here in washington, d.c. what google is doing, i know the mark watch analyst is going after them pretty hard. i think what they're actually trying to do, is a part of what's happening. google is a serious

64 player. in business, they're a serious player in politics. they want to be a part of something wonderful in helping transperform democracy and they're doing so through technology. charles: thank you so much, david and john. appreciate it. thanks for joining us. >> illustrating even more the influence of technology and the internet, senator barack obama his decision to text his supporters declaring running mate. here to discuss how candidates are embracing technology to their advantage is "fox news" contributor susan estridge. she's in los angeles. radio talk show host steve malzberg. in washington, james kotecky.

Entry #55

Good Day Colorado KDVR (Fox) Denver, CO DMA: 18 Aug 22 2008 9:09AM Programming Type: News Talk

Est. Households/Views: 10,270 Est. Publicity Value: $207 (30 sec.) Clip Total: $414

>> obama. >> and she was screaming that inside. barak obama. that's who she's going to vote for. >> sounds like bronco- bama. >> it's a huge event for everyone involved. and how the kids get to be on tv Play Media too. >> and the little boy sounds like a Direct Link little man. and i will tell you that, i'm for health care. whoa. is that a little boy. 9:09 now, and now you have seen inside where the media is going to be set up. and we got a first look at the big tent , and they willable right alongside the journalists and the nonprofit leaders and they will spend their days and nights under the massive two story tent. and crews are looking on building what the protesters are calling the freedom cage, and

Entry #56

Good Day Colorado KDVR (Fox) Denver, CO DMA: 18 Aug 22 2008 7:02AM Programming Type: News Talk

Est. Households/Views: 37,074 Est. Publicity Value: $526 (30 sec.) Clip Total: $2,104

65 cool deal. i've been to a lot of big theater things. it was like being at disney world, the political version of disney world when he turned the lights on. > the years in the making, leading up to this, what is it like for it to actually be happening right now? > it is, it's hard to capture the emotion around it. i think that -- >> well, obviously, we lost that signal there from the pepsi center. we are sorry about that. as we continue here on "good day colorado" this morning, of course, the big d.n.c. convention getting ready here, a look inside the big tent as we got earlier, this is where the bloggers are coming from denver to the d.n.c. and they'll be working in this giant tent, of course, along with journalists, nonprofit leaders, they spent their night under a massive 8,000 square foot, two-story tent. >> this is new, the at the point -- tent where the bloggers are taking on, very important to this protestors, also the freedom cage, this is the protest zone, the protestors and the a.c.l.u. filed a lawsuit saying it was too far away from the delegates and a federal judge disagreed. it's a push to show off more renewable energy, the bloggers, we've got this area for the protestors, so both of these things are new. i think a lot of people do blog, talking about their political opinion. >> huge tents, you see them all over the city, Play Media that's just one example there. as we shift Direct Link to another topic, it's something the state really is going to be cutting edge on, and chris tomer is live to talk about previewing technology as well. >> first of its kind.

Entry #57

Fox 31 News at Nine O'Clock KDVR (Fox) Denver, CO DMA: 18 Aug 21 2008 9:23PM Programming Type: News

Est. Households/Views: 110,493 Est. Publicity Value: $5,286 (30 sec.) Clip Total: $10,572

governor bill ritter and governor mayor hickenlooper -- >> i don't think when the show leaves town any of them are going to be talked about in the way that a barack obama had been talked about four Play Media years ago based on his performance at Direct Link the 2004 convention. first of all, their roles are different here. none of them are expected to give a major address. none of

66 them are a keynote, or a featured speaker of the evening. >> democrats are hoping the biggest star out of the convention after obama will be his running mate. >>> today we got our first look at the big tent where bloggers coming to denver for the dnc will be working. they along with journalists and nonprofit leaders will spend their days and nights under this massive 8000-square-foot two- story tent. >>> and crews are working on building what protestors call the freedom cage. it's the designated protest zone at the pepsi center in parking lot a. protestors and the aclu filed a lawsuit saying the area was too

Entry #58

WACH FOX Good Day! WACH (Fox) Columbia, SC DMA: 81 Aug 21 2008 8:25AM Programming Type: News

Est. Households/Views: 2,104 Est. Publicity Value: $42 (30 sec.) Clip Total: $168

huh ?" pardon the phrase, a tent city mos says: tents, lots of tents going up so big, so white, so hard to imagine .. what's going on in there ?mos says: my guess is that is has something to do with the democratic conventionmos says: i don't know but it's beautiful, dnc here's the answer: this 20 thousand square foot, air conditioned behemouth at 15th and california called "the peak" ...mos says: at first i thought, great, it'll block the sun will be rented for parties, and concerts during the d-n-c mos says: pretty big, pretty big, i think it's going to be preety nice because it's enclosed at invesco field - a tent that looks more like d-i-a than the dnc will house an exhibit called the presidential experience. it's 400 feet long, which is good news since it will hold a mock up of airforce oneclark says: " this is the first Play Media you tube election" and this may be the Direct Link first tent devoted to hosting bloggers and new media types. at 15th and wynkoop they'l enjoy one of the city's biggest wi-fi systemsclark says: to give a platform for those people to cover a very big event and have the resources to do it the rest of the media world, will camp out under four massive tents at the pepsi centerclark says: with sound proof walls, tables chairs phone lines internet access democrats

67 have always wanted to be the party of " the big tent ," who can blame them, for taking that lietrally. this morning...thousands remember "the prague spring" in the czech republic and in china... patriotic acupuncture. shepard smith takes us around the world in 80 seconds. czech republic ... thousands of "warsaw pact" tanks rolled into prague 40 years ago. it was the end of alexander dubcek's attempt to put a human face on -- a reform effort known as áthe prague spring.á the national museum still bears the scars of gunfire from that day. there was brief resistance -- but more than 200-thousand soviet- led troops crushed the . most czechs who rember the day -- say they were shocked by the invasion. afghanistan ... french

Entry #59

9News 6am KUSA (NBC) Denver, CO DMA: 18 Aug 21 2008 6:15AM Programming Type: News

Est. Households/Views: 162,124 Est. Publicity Value: $3,513 (30 sec.) Clip Total: $7,026

making their mark on the town. msnbc and cnn takes over the side of the peppy center. convention center officials say workers are cleaning up and painting and cleaning. work is expected to be done by Play Media tomorrow. that's when the convention Direct Link committee will unveil a high- tech podium that has been kept top secret. >> people will be astonished at what we have done to transform the sports arena into a convention hall where we will be conducting the official business of the convention, to nominate our candidate. >> newspapers, networks and television stations including 9news continuing their set up and tents on the pepsi center grounds. 15,000 members of the media will be attending the convention. google all about the dnc. they are installing you tube upload and photo scarring kiosks downtown. some will be in the peppy center and the big tent , a special facility for bloggers. convention speakers have a chance to say a few things on

Entry #60

68 81 Aug 21 2008 7:25AM Programming Type: News

Est. Households/Views: 2,974 Est. Publicity Value: $49 (30 sec.) Clip Total: $98

and california called "the peak" ...mos says: at first i thought, great, it'll block the sun will be rented for parties, and concerts during the d-n-c mos says: pretty big, pretty big, i think it's going to be preety nice because it's enclosed at invesco field -- a tent that looks more like Play Media d-i-a than the dnc will house an exhibit Direct Link called the presidential experience. it's 400 feet long, which is good news since it will hold a mock up of airforce oneclark says: " this is the first you tube election" and this may be the first tent devoted to hosting bloggers and new media types. at 15th and wynkoop they'l enjoy one of the city's biggest wi-fi systemsclark says: to give a platform for those people to cover a very big event and have the resources to do it the rest of the media world, will camp out under four massive tents at the pepsi centerclark says: with sound proof walls, tables chairs phone lines internet access democrats have always wanted to be the party of " the big tent ," who can blame them, for taking that lietrally. this morning...thousands remember "the prague spring" in the czech republic and in china... patriotic

Entry #61

News at 9 KXRM (Fox) Colorado Springs, CO DMA: 93 Aug 20 2008 9:30PM Programming Type: News

Est. Households/Views: 24,831 Est. Publicity Value: $612 (30 sec.) Clip Total: $2,448

takes us on a tour. seemingly over night, denver's become ...mos says: "they're all over the place, huh ?" pardon the phrase, a tent city mos says: tents, lots of tents going upso big, so white, so hard to imagine ... what's going on in there ?mos says: my guess is that is has something to do with the democratic conventionmos says: i don't know but it's beautiful,

69 dnchere's the answer:this 20 thousand square foot, air conditioned behemouth at 15th and california called "the peak" ...mos says: at first i thought, great, it'll block the sunwill be rented for parties, and concerts during the d-n-cmos says: pretty big, pretty big, i think it's going to be preety nice because it's enclosedat invesco field -- a tent that looks more like d-i- a than the dnc will house an exhibit called the presidential experience. it's 400 feet long, which is good news since it will hold a mock up of airforce oneclark says: " this is the first you tube election"and this may be the first tent devoted to hosting bloggers and new media types. at 15th and wynkoop Play Media they'l enjoy one of the city's biggest wi-fi Direct Link systemsclark says: to give a platform for those people to cover a very big event and have the resources to do itthe rest of the media world, will camp out under four massive tents at the pepsi centerclark says: with sound proof walls, tables chairs phone lines internet accessdemocrats have always wanted to be the party of " the big tent ," who can blame them, for taking that literally. that was fox's john romero reporting.some college presidents are trying to stop binge drinking on their campuses... by supporting an initiative to lower the drinking age. age.we'll look at both sides of the ... a little later as fox-21 news at nine continues. and new research shows that diabetes may have a lot to do with genetics.modern medicine is coming up next.

Entry #62

The Situation Room CNN (CNN) , DMA: 0 Aug 19 2008 4:57PM Programming Type: News

this. they promise once it gets under way on monday, it lib available online to voters. what's that's going to look like, it's live streaming coverage on the website, on the convention website, in english and in spanish. and then you've got the coverage from the bloggers as well. more than 120 of them invited. some of them Play Media will be blogging from inside the pepsi Direct Link center, some of them embedded with their delegations. others are going to be in this space right here. it doesn't look like much right now. this is the denver nuggets' weight room, they promise this

70 will all be transformed for the bloggers. they've also got space outside just down the road in the big tent blogging facility. two floors with google-sponsored smoothies and massages. with all this going on, there's one group that really hopes they're not going to get drowned out, the pumas. they are denver bound as well. as they say on their website. thee are diehard hillary clinton supporters. they say they have rented space in denver as well and they will

Entry #63

Fox 31 News at Nine O'Clock KDVR (Fox) Denver, CO DMA: 18 Aug 18 2008 9:09PM Programming Type: News

Est. Households/Views: 124,183 Est. Publicity Value: $5,839 (30 sec.) Clip Total: $23,356

avoided a huge mess thanks to a tentative deal by qwest and the employees. one day after the workers' contract expired they came to terms. there were concerns employees might strike during the convention. the potential disaster since qwest is providing all phone and internet service for the dnc. qwest has not yet commenting on the deal because it is not yet final. >>> if you're wondering what's going on underneath some of the giant tents, we have some answers for you. the pepsi center now has four media tents for the convention. the biggest of which is 62,000 square feet. a 20,000 square foot tent called the peak at 15th and california will house concerts and parties. invesco field is home to tenant for an exhibit called the presidential experience. and 15th and wynkoop will house bloggers from all over Play Media the world, working out after structure Direct Link called the big tent . >> what we're trying to do here is provide additional access for people who don't always get that kind of access that the mainstream media get. >> one pepsi center press tent is so big, it had to be built over and around a group of trees that are now inside it. >>> the re-create 68 protest group says rap legend public enemy will play a concert during their protest of the second day of the dnc. the group rage against the machine is playing the next day. re-create 68 always announced that cindy she man will rally with them in denver this sunday

71 before the convention. >>> anyone on the waitlist for tickets to barack obama's acceptance speech at invesco field won't have to wait enough longer. people who were already awarded tickets had to pick them up by last night at campaign offices. if think don't activate the tickets by the end of the day on tuesday, they'll lose them. and they'll be given to someone else on the waitlist. >>> barack obama and expected to announce his runningmate sometime this weekend. his schedule could provide some clues.

Entry #64

News 2 KWGN (CW) Denver, CO DMA: 18 Aug 18 2008 5:31PM Programming Type: News

Est. Households/Views: 36,751 Est. Publicity Value: $819 (30 sec.) Clip Total: $1,638

are appreciative of that and very flexible because it might cause some delays in traffic and things like that, but gosh, it's an exciting time and i think it's well worth it." one more thing... there will also be Play Media 400 downtown denver hosts ... people Direct Link who are trained to approach visitors and greet them, provide directions, recommendations for restaurants, hand out maps, you name it. you'll see them wearing bright yellow t-shirts and hats... they will be all over the place downtown... you can't miss them. another part of the preparations... the pitching of " the big tent ." its an 8-thousand square foot... 2- story temporary structure under construction for the d-n-c. when completed... it'll house a state-of-the- art blogging media lounge ... the google retreat ... with a youtube kiosk... and the digg stage... which is the main stage on the first floor. as a security precaution ahead of the d-n-c... the u-s postal service has been removing downtown drop-off boxes. and earlier

Total Number of Cumulative Est. Audience: Cumulative Est. Publicity Value: Clips: 64 6,143,962 $410,142 (Sum of Clip Totals)

72

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73

Bloggers embraced at Democratic convention

by Ivan Moreno

August 27, 2008

The age of mom-and-pop pundit shops has arrived at the Democratic convention. Bloggers are here by the hundreds, getting better seats and more respect than they ever have in their rather short history. Mike Skowronek is a cattle rancher in Argentina. Mark Brooks is a retired land surveyor from Virginia. Vera Starbard works in public relations in Alaska. They are among the bloggers writing furiously from the convention floor or from a big tent with leather couches a mile away. Bloggers say there's a hunger for personalized information tailored to specific audiences. That's why Skowronek's blog, http://www.yanquimike.com.ar, is catering to U.S. expatriates in Buenos Aires, and Starbard, 26, is focusing on matters of interest to native populations in Alaska with alaskareal.blogspot.com. Many people catch up with the host-city site http://www.squarestate.net to see what's happening with convention logistics and local flavor. And thanks to a post on http://www.keystonepolitics.com, convention-watchers learned that Sen. Bob Casey couldn't drive to the arena for a TV interview because his van didn't have the right security pass. "Running late, he jumped out and started on foot for a security checkpoint that shimmered in the heat a 15-minute hike away," Greg Palmer wrote. "'It's blue-collar to walk in,' Casey joked. He was right on message." Gina Cooper, a former high school teacher in Memphis, Tenn., who founded , a community of bloggers, said the welcome mat for bloggers points to a changing culture. "There's a different set of expectations," she said. "Regular people expect to have access." Democrats issued about 120 credentials for bloggers at this year's event, three times as many as they did in Boston in 2004. Hundreds more are here on their own.

74 When Republicans convene next week in St. Paul, Minn., there will be almost 200 credentialed bloggers, up from 12 at the convention in New York four years ago, GOP convention spokeswoman Melissa Subbotin said. "Technology is playing an important role in this convention, moreso than ever before," Subbotin said. The Democratic convention set aside a "Blogger's Lounge" at the Pepsi Center. The room, located down the hall from dressing rooms for the television networks, has work space and TVs broadcasting convention speakers. The bloggers also have floor passes they can share for half-hour turns, and sometimes a chance to interview convention speakers and pose for pictures. Out of the 120 blogs credentialed by convention officials, Democrats selected 55 as the "state blogger corps," to represent 54 states and territories and Americans abroad. They have access to the convention floor and get to follow their state delegation. One result is a lot of valentines from bloggers wowed by speakers and VIPs. Their own message tends to be on message with the party's, and pictures come with captions such as "Senator Jim Webb and a very thrilled me." "It's been a lot of fun," said 52-year-old Tom Noyes, whose http://www.tommywonk.blogspot.com site was chosen from Delaware. "First of all, the Delaware delegation was moved from the back of the floor to the front when Joe Biden was tapped as Obama's running mate. It's a great view." For the bloggers who don't have a pass to the Pepsi Center or prefer to stay away from the long security lines, local groups and blog supporters created "The Big Tent." The two-story structure feels more like a garage than a media center, with leather couches and a bar serving microbrewed beer. Markos Moulitsas, 36, founder of the Daily Kos Web site and one of the tent's organizers, said about 500 blogs were given tent passes and more wanted in. Bloggers at the tent, who mostly write for left-leaning sites, said they were more interested in sharing interesting political stories for their sites than getting the big scoops of the day. "What made me get into blogging was wanting to have a voice in politics," said Brooks, a 51-year-old who describes himself as breaking the mold of what people might imagine as a typical blogger, making time to garden in the summer and spend time with his family. "I'm not blogging from my mother's basement in my sweat pants eating Cheetos," he said.

75

New media army descends on convention

August 27, 2008

DENVER, Colorado (AFP) — A new media army has descended on the Democratic convention in Colorado this week, boldly claiming to offer a fresh perspective on US politics distinct from the mainstream media.

For the first time ever at a major convention, bloggers say they are being treated with respect normally reserved for print and electronic journalists, a reflection of the Internet's growing influence on the campaign trail.

Democratic convention organizers issued around 120 credentials specifically for bloggers at this year's convention -- roughly three times as many as they did at their last extravaganza in Boston four years ago.

Dedicated work areas for bloggers have been set up inside the Pepsi Center, while those reporting from the sidelines are gathering at "The Big Tent", a two-story structure catering to around 500 independent bloggers.

Jen Bruenjes, a contributing editor at the liberal blog Daily Kos, which is one of three sponsors of the facility said for 100 dollars bloggers got a workspace, free wi-fi, and perhaps most attractively, free beer.

"We had a lot of feedback from the 2004 convention that activities during the day were pretty boring but that the bloggers enjoyed hanging out together," Bruenjes said. "So we thought let's create a zone where we can do that. Once we started down that road the interest skyrocketed."

"I think four years ago in Boston there was nothing. Just a conference room with a couple of crates of beer and wifi."

As well as allocating more dedicated blogger credentials, Democratic organizers have also chosen 55 online commentators to represent 54 states and territories attending the convention.

This band of bloggers are granted access to the convention floor in order to report on their state delegation from the front lines.

"(Democratic National Comittee chairman) told us yesterday that we had better access than the mainstream media and I actually think that's true," said Cheryl Contee, a founder of JackandJillpolitics.com, a blog set up to focus on black issues.

"We're getting access to the podium, to the floor, there really aren't many places that are off limits."

76 The embrace of new media has not been limited to the Democrats. The Republicans have also rushed to woo bloggers, issuing around 200 credentials for next week's convention in St Paul, Minnesota, up from a handful in 2004.

"A lot of people find the traditional media very stale, very programmed," said the Daily Kos's Bruenjes. "Our readers are looking for something more than a 30-second soundbite on important issues."

Contee echoed that view, arguing that the explosion in blogs reflected a growing distrust of traditional media, citing the reporting by US media of the build-up to the 2003 war in Iraq as a key reason.

"Blogs have become important because there's been a declining trust in the mainstream media particularly in the lack of hard-hitting reporting in the run-up to the Iraq war," Contee said.

"That combined with the new availability of tools that allows anyone to publish and create their own audience, which didn't exist before."

JackandJillpolitics.com was launched in 2006 with only two bloggers and now has a staff of six people, even if it is only a hobby for Contee, who is a full-time technology consultant.

Now the site is attracting 100,000 unique users every month and has carved out a niche for people want "news without the usual filters."

Pam Spaulding, the founder of PamsHouseBlend.com, which specializes in commentary and reporting on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues, the religious right and race matters, also blogs around a day job in academic publishing. "I had to take my paid time off to come here," Spaulding told AFP. "I've pretty much exhausted my allowance for the whole year. I'm going to have to take unpaid leave for the rest of the year if I want to travel, but fortunately my employer is supportive.

"My goal is to cover the stories that you're not going to see on television or primetime. We can't compete with the resources the networks or traditional media have."

77

In Denver, a Thousand Little Pieces

by David Carr

August 31, 2008

**SEE ONLINE SECTION FOR APPROXIMATE TEXT

78

The year of the political blogger has arrived

by Amanda M. Fairbanks

August 22, 2008

**SEE ONLINE SECTION FOR APPROXIMATE TEXT

79

Party Scene's In Crowd? Outsiders Staked a Claim.

by Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts

August 29, 2008, Page A25

Party crashers! The revolutionaries took over this convention, at least the A-list events and venues. Insurgents, cranks, anti-establishmentarians -- people who couldn't get a floor pass four years ago -- were the darlings of this week's festivities.

Seems like just minutes ago that progressive activist Eli Pariser, 27, was working out of his crummy N.Y.C. bedroom. Now his MoveOn.org is a buzzy, getting-blingy juggernaut that pulled off one of the more "you aren't on the list" parties of the week. (And Pariser's June wedding scored an announcement on the pages of .)

At "Unconventional '08" late Wednesday for about 500 guests, Sarah Silverman (ponytail, vintage vest, tie) canoodled with a fan she just met ("You're so much hotter in person!," he gushed), while San Fran Mayor Gavin Newsom and new bride Jennifer Siebel held court with a throng of bloggers, reports our colleague Jose Antonio Vargas . Danny Glover , actor Daniel Dae Kim and Jane Fonda 's actor son, Troy Garrity, grooved to indie sensations Jenny Lewis , Ben Gibbard and Zooey Deschanel .

Silverman took the stage to introduce Newsom with her trademark raunch: "A great public servant and a man that I would like to discipline sexually."

"Where's Matt Damon when you need him?" the mayor shot back.

The Huffington Post didn't even exist four years ago; now, it offered massages and deep thoughts at its "Oasis" adjacent to the "Big Tent" home of new-media heavyweights like Daily Kos and Digg . Founder had her people give away organic trail mix and smoothies while she presided over confabs like Tuesday's lunch with Charlie Rose , , Will.I.Am , Fred Armisen and Washington Post Publisher Katharine Weymouth . "Yesterday's media is biased; it puts it from that person's perspective, left up to you to interpret it," Will.I.Am told the audience. "New media gives people power to voice their opinions." What ever .

Even Vanity Fair , long-reigning chronicler of high-sheen Poliwood, took up with the rich nerd boys of Google to co-host a super-exclusive closing-night bash, which promised not just but Nintendo Wii and "Rock Band." Hundreds of actually-invited VIPs were expected, plus a huge crowd outside of those who groveled, begged or RSVPed for tickets they were never offered.

At least some things never change.

80 KANYE WATCH

So Kanye We st did not disappoint: He showed up in Denver as promised, and he actually played a full one-hour show for a hot-ticket ONE Campaign/RIAA party early yesterday a.m. Sure, he took the stage more than a full hour after he was expected -- but in a way, you know, that's exactly what we expected.

And, omigod, EEEEeeeeeeeeagh!!!! He brought Jamie Foxx out to help him sing "Gold Digger"!

The only way West let us down was in his utter failure to say anything scandalous or nutso during his 10-song set. He didn't even follow any issue-advocacy talking points -- this whole evening, of course, was intended to educate us about fighting AIDS and poverty and vaccinating millions of Third World children against malaria -- except for a sly bit of freestyling bemoaning "the loss of my mama" and "years of drama. . ."

But, added West: "At least we got Obama ."

Cheers from the packed house of 2,500 politicos and groupies, including Forest Whitaker , Seth Meyers , Adrian Fenty and Kirsten Dunst , the lovely starlet in a world of her own, grooving to the beat with downcast eyes.

81

Where Minority Is Majority; Denver's Hispanics Could Prove Crucial On Election Day

by Jose Antonio Vargas

August 28, 2008, Page A28

DENVER, Aug. 27 -- So why this city, anyway?

To find out why the Democratic National Committee chose Denver to host its convention, we leave the dizzying action downtown -- the hobnobbing celebs, delegates and pols, the bloggers and journos under the Big Tent and in the Pepsi Center , all that choreographed circus -- and drive just 10 minutes north.

Go up a hill, past new lofts and swank restaurants. Turn right, and pass the McDonald's billboard touting an Egg McMuffin in Spanish ("Los Preparamos" -- "we prepare them") and then the hunched old man ringing his bell and pushing a cart filled with Mexican ice cream for $1.50 a pop.

This is a neighborhood called Northside, home to La Casita, which churns out handmade tamales like Starbucks brews grande lattes. It's the heart of Denver's Latino community, which, at 35 percent of an estimated 560,000 residents, is by far the city's largest minority group.

In this city, the chances of electing the first black president heavily falls on the shoulders of Latinos, the country's fastest-growing electorate. And they know it, too.

Listen to Paul Sandoval, speaking about Barack Obama :

"A lot of people are still uncomfortable with him, including Hispanics. With us, it's what they call la corazón -- the heart -- and we want to feel like we know him. He's leading McCain 2 to 1 among Hispanics! Two to one! It should be 80 to 20!" says Sandoval, who's owned La Casita for 35 years.

At 64, he's a fixture on the political scene here. Served as state senator for eight years, then as a school board member for six. He was a strong backer of Hillary Rodham Clinton during the primaries and has doubts about Obama.

Amanda, Sandoval's youngest daughter, shakes her head and sighs. "Obama still has a lot of work to do," she says. "The thing about Hispanics is, once you get us shaking and grooving, once you get us hooked, we're set, we're there. But we're not there yet." The 29-year-old mother of two works part time at La Casita. She's an Obama supporter and has been since the senator from announced his candidacy 18 months ago.

82 The Sandovals represent the generation gap among Hispanic voters that was evident throughout the Democratic primaries. Obama usually won among younger Hispanics, while older ones overwhelmingly favored Clinton. Now, less than 10 weeks before Nov. 4, the subtle tension between father and daughter reflects the discussions within many Hispanic households.

Every two years, pollsters like to say that the Hispanic vote is a sleeping giant. It's a giant, all right, a critical bloc in Southwestern swing states such as New Mexico, Nevada and Colorado. But it's never really asleep. It just keeps getting bigger.

Especially here, where more than 55 percent of students in the Denver public schools is Hispanic.

A few days ago, nudging their father to pay closer attention to Obama, Amanda and her sister printed out Obama's six-page economic plan for small businesses and highlighted key parts in bright orange ink. On the last page, the sisters wrote: "WE CAN'T HAVE FOUR MORE YEARS OF REPUBLICANS IN OFFICE. WE NEED YOUR VOTE!"

When Denver made a bid to host this convention, Elbra Wedgeworth, then head of the City Council, told Howard Dean , the party chairman, that Denver's significant Hispanic population would be an asset.

"At a time when the Hispanic vote is up for grabs -- President Bush did well among Hispanics in 2004 -- this is an opportunity for us, as a city, as a state, to celebrate our diversity," says Wedgeworth, president of the host committee, recalling what she told Dean.

Denver, after all, is home to some of the state's most prominent Hispanic pols. Federico Peña, secretary of transportation and then secretary of energy under President Bill Clinton , became the city's first Hispanic mayor in the 1980s. Ken Salazar , a Democrat who is one of the country's three Hispanic senators, along with Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) and Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), is a familiar face in Colorado's capital.

The city also boasts one of the biggest Cinco de Mayo celebrations in the country. On that day, about 10 miles of Federal Boulevard, one of the main arteries, is shut down. Revelers walk the streets and enjoy the food.

The boulevard runs through Northside, full of mom-and-pop stores and up-and-coming businesses. It's a changing neighborhood, with new residents, mostly Anglos, buying up most of the new condos.

One night this week, Aztec Sol, a restaurant and bar, was teeming with customers. The Anglo ones were signed on the free WiFi as they ordered burritos, chips and guacamole, while a group of Hispanic men, fresh off work and with their niños and niñas in tow, played pool.

In this neighborhood, the Iraq war is an open sore. Almost everyone has a relative or a friend who is on duty there. Over at La Casita, Amanda Sandoval talks about her friend Mike, who returned from his second tour in Iraq "as a completely different man."

"It's the craziest thing I've ever seen," Amanda says of her friend. "He's an educated man. He got his degree in psychology. I mean, smart. And now he's like some gangster thug guy who can't

83 have a drink and not go off about Arabs and blacks and bombs and blowing things up. It's so sad. It breaks my heart."

She says she opposed the war all along, and it was Obama's early opposition to the war, she says, that impressed her most.

Same goes for Anthony Atienzo, 31, and Jamie Montoya, 35, who sit on Montoya's porch drinking beer and smoking. "You gotta remember, a lot of the young kids fighting in Iraq are young Latinos and young blacks. Young minorities," says Atienzo, who works at a law firm downtown. "As a minority, Obama knows that."

He takes a drag on his cigarette and continues: "When Obama is elected president, if Obama is elected president, all of us minorities, I think, will look at ourselves differently. I think for so long we've been so divided -- blacks, Latinos and Asians -- and we haven't realized that together, as minorities, we have a lot of power."

"Sure, sure, you young ones might like him," the father tells the daughter, "but us older Latinos, our votes matter, too."

Paul and Amanda Sandoval chat once more outside La Casita on a recent Tuesday, waiting for Amanda's daughter, 6-year-old Isabella, to get out of school at 4 p.m. Paul says he has always identified with minority elected officials: black, brown, whatever.

"It's not a matter of race with me, with Barack Obama. It's a matter of, I have to see what he wants to do for this country. Not speeches, not rallies. Details."

Friends and customers, older Latinos like himself, he says, come up to him all the time, saying: "I don't know this guy. I don't think I trust him. Who is he?"

Amanda looks on, slightly exasperated. "Maybe you're just not looking at the right place. He's been running for president for, what, 19 months now?"

The exchange ends there. Amanda walks two blocks to pick up Isabella, who just started sixth grade last week. The girl spots the old man ringing his bell, selling Mexican ice cream and begs for one.

Says Amanda: "When I see Obama, I think: Finally, the minority's voice is being heard. The United States has nominated a black man for president. That is huge on a world scale, and it represents who America is. A country of minorities, not just white people. It's time to move on, to get beyond the past, to look to the future, to the future of someone like my daughter, who will grow up to know that a minority can lead this country."

84

Youngest, most diverse Dem Convention ever

by Joe Garofoli

August 25, 2008 – Page A5

Since the first appearance of a goofy straw hat on a delegate's head, largely the same people, cycle after cycle, have populated national political conventions. But that's changing this year. The Democratic National Convention, which begins today in Denver, will be the most diverse in its history, including a record number of delegates younger than 30, with thousands more young people flocking to Denver to be part of the historic event.

With only 11 percent of the California delegation under 30, it's not as though the convention floor will be mistaken for a rave, but it will make a difference. As Paula Villescaz, 19, a first- time attendee from Carmichael, described the changing face of the 441-member California delegation "When all the delegates met (a few months ago), me and my friends brought down the average age in the room by several , at least."

The hard-fought primary between presumptive nominee Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton juiced interest in becoming a delegate. While there are 66 - members of Congress and other elected and party officials - going to Denver, demographic changes were most notably seen in the number of district-level delegates.

Conventioneering is no longer the sole province of those who can afford to pay $2,500 out of their own pocket. Like many other young delegates, Villescaz held fundraisers and solicited donations from friends and supporters to cover her costs.

She was one of the record number of Californians - 2,850 - who applied to be one of 241 district- level delegates chosen in elections in April. In Rep. 's East Bay district, 101 people battled for five slots to become an Obama delegate. (California's Republican delegates were handpicked by the primary candidates in January.)

"Delegates tended to be the same folks, year after year, but this year it's a lot different," said Natalie Wyeth, a Democratic National Convention Committee spokeswoman. Anecdotally, she said, this year's convention is believed to have the highest number of first-time delegates.

Convention fever is warmer than usual nationally, too. According to a Pew Research Center poll released Thursday, 59 percent of Americans "say they are interested in following what happens at the Democratic Convention, up from 36 percent in 2004."

The record turnout of young voters this year led to an increase in the percentage of younger delegates both in California and nationally (15 percent are under 36, up from 9 percent in 2000),

85 according to Young Voter PAC, a political action committee that supports Democratic candidates who reach out to younger voters.

The importance of these numbers isn't derived just from the energy young delegates bring to the campaign after the Republican National Convention ends Sept. 4.

"If we can get young people into our house early, then you have them for life," said California Democratic Party adviser Bob Mulholland. "And unlike 20 years ago, when young people came home from the convention and told their families about what they did, now they can connect (online) with their social networks of people who aren't there and spread the word."

More than 3,000 young people who are not delegates are expected to go to Denver just to be part of the history-making convention, said Jane Fleming Kleeb, executive director of Young Voter PAC.

Rick Relinger, a 20-year-old delegate from Oakland, will travel to Denver with a dozen other nondelegates, many he met while working for Obama. "I think many of us want to see, first- hand, the fruit of what we all worked so hard for," Relinger said.

Netroots Nation, the liberal online convention that grew out of the Daily Kos political blog community, is co-sponsoring a two-story, 8,000-square-foot tent outside the convention where 800 bloggers will gather to transmit their impressions to the world. Many of the A-list politicians and policymakers who are to appear at official convention events will stop by the structure, dubbed the Big Tent, to connect with the predominantly younger crowd - most of them first-time convention-goers. Cost for a week of Big Tent access: $100.

"It's a good opportunity for many of these people to network with the political players who they wouldn't ordinarily have access to," said Raven Brooks, a Netroots Nation board member. Even though the first-timers may not be big campaign donors, Brooks said politicians will listen to them "not because of who they are as individuals but because of the collective power of the Netroots" online activists.

"And there's free beer in the Big Tent all week!" Markos Moulitsas, the Berkeley resident who founded DailyKos.com, the nation's largest political blog, said with a laugh. He was among the few dozen bloggers who covered the 2004 political conventions and pledged to make this convention experience better for online activists. At the 2004 conventions, he sat in the rafters.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, an active campaigner for Clinton during the primary, is sidling up to young voters in Denver by co-sponsoring an event Wednesday billed "to honor young Democrats." It will feature the bands Cold War Kids and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and Sarah Silverman. Along with Newsom, who is exploring a gubernatorial run, the other co-sponsors of "Unconventional '08" include Pacific Gas and Electric and MoveOn.org.

For Villescaz, a UC Berkeley student, going to Denver "is the highest political achievement anyone in my family has done." She never knew her father, and her mother supported her by working two jobs for years.

86 "I couldn't get to school without Pell grants," Villescaz said. "I know it sounds cliche or whatever, but I want to go there so I can help make sure that other people have the same chances I did."

California's delegation

Some familiar faces

House Speaker , 68, San Francisco

Sen. , 67, Rancho Mirage

Rep. George Miller, 63, Martinez

Mayor Ron Dellums, 72, Oakland

Gray Davis, former California governor, 65, Los Angeles

Sal Rosselli, union leader, 58, San Francisco

Amos Brown, former supervisor 67, San Francisco

Ayelet Waldman, author, 43, Berkeley

Gloria Allred, celebrity attorney, 67, Pacific Palisades

Mayor Gavin Newsom, 40, San Francisco

District Attorney , 43, San Francisco

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, 55, Los Angeles

Some unfamiliar faces

Javier Gonzalez, 26, San Jose

Molly Kawahata, 18, Palo Alto

Dave Carlson, 22, Del Mar

Rick Relinger, 20, Oakland

Paula Villescaz, 19, Carmichael

Gustavo Delgado, 19, Anaheim

Natalie Rojas, 22, Santa Cruz

For complete list of California delegation, go to: tinyurl.com/47khzc

87 Demographic breakdown

Latino/Hispanic: 25.9 percent

African American: 17.2 percent

Asian Pacific Islander: 8.6 percent

Native American: 2.7 percent

Disabled: 7.7 percent

LGBT: 11.3 percent

Younger than 30: 11.1 percent

Source: Democratic National Convention Committee

E-mail Joe Garofoli at [email protected] .

88

ONLINE

89

Answers to Your Questions

Answers given by Katie Couric and Bob Schieffer

September 1, 2008

(CBS) Due to Hurricane Gustav, the first day of the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., was cut short to only include the official business of the convention. But we still got CBS News anchor Katie Couric, chief Washington correspondent Bob Schieffer, senior political correspondent Jeff Greenfield and chief political consultant Marc Ambinder to answer some of the questions you have submitted to us in the past week. You can read their answers below.

When the convention returns to a full schedule, be sure to check out our special RNC Convention Webcast online at CBSNews.com following nightly CBS network coverage from 10-11 ET, where we will answer more of your questions. You can submit more questions here. .

QUESTION: Do you think this election will be more "civil" than past elections or will it degenerate once again into a negativity fest? (from Mike in Chula Vista, Calif.)

KATIE COURIC: This is an interesting question, Mike, because both candidates pledged early in the race that this would be a high-minded campaign and both indicated they wanted to stay clear of mudslinging. But both campaigns have already gone negative to some extent, whether it be McCain’s “celebrity” ad or the Obama camp picking up on McCain’s gaffe about the number of homes he owns.

While we were in Denver I ran into former Governor and talked to him about just that. I asked him what he thought about James Carville’s criticism that the Democrats weren’t tough enough on McCain early in the week. Dukakis said, “you’ve got to make it a character issue about the guy you are running against.”

By Tuesday night the Dems on stage, including Hillary Clinton, were taking shots at McCain. I expect we’ll see the same from the GOP in St. Paul.

QUESTION: Katie: Is the convention more than just a formality? If not, then why does it consume an entire week? (from gc3182)

KATIE COURIC: We actually discussed this in an editorial meeting in Denver, or some version of it. With the nomination all but a done deal well before the convention, there was no need for brokering in a smoke-filled back room.

But nowadays when presidential elections can come down to just a handful of swing states, or in the case of the 2000 election just a handful of votes, it isn’t about the 80,000 cheering fans. It’s about the viewers watching it on TV at home, sitting on the fence and unsure about where their votes will go this year. I’m not saying this is a definitive answer, but I think the conventions are as much for the

90 Independents and undecideds nowadays as they are for the party loyalists.

QUESTION: Many young people feel that their votes do not count. They believe what ever happens nothing will change. How do you reassure voters that this is not the case? (from FzBravozf)

KATIE COURIC: It saddens me to hear this, FzBravozf. Is that screen name some kind of anagram, by the way?

The truth is, turnout among young voters was extremely high in the primaries compared to previous elections. In some states, triple or even quadruple the number of young voters turned out. Check out the site civicyouth.org for some good stats and information.

We spoke to Heather Smith from Rock the Vote at the Big Tent in Denver, and I was actually encouraged by her optimism about participation among young people in 2008. That said, I told her we should talk again after the election and see if all that blogging and twittering actually turns into votes on November 4.

QUESTION: I found your call for questions on UrbanBaby.com. One of my biggest concerns regarding our youth, is the problem of childhood diabetes. What specific plans does the Democratic Party have for addressing the devastating surge of childhood obesity and diabetes? (from Tara Kompare of North Carolina)

KATIE COURIC: I definitely agree that childhood obesity is a serious concern. We, as parents, do have a responsibility to make sure our kids are eating right and getting outside for some physical activity. You don’t exactly break a sweat updating a MySpace page. That said, this is one of the few areas where both parties have come together in the past. Do you remember when President Bill Clinton and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee joined forces to fight childhood obesity? A lot is being done on the state level, as well. For example, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich has lobbied his state lawmakers and teamed up with other governors on the issue.

QUESTION: St. Paul is NOT Minneapolis. Thank you for acknowledging that. (from Craigb05)

KATIE COURIC: OK, that was more of a comment. Someone posted that on my YouTube channel. I did make a mistake a few weeks ago on the broadcast when I said Sen. McCain’s big night would be in Minneapolis. I corrected myself, but later learned I was only one of many to mistake the Twins. Even Minnesota politicians have done it. Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who was considered to be on the very short list for McCain’s VP pick, and Rep. Michele Bachmann have both referred to the conventions as being in Minneapolis at one point or another.

QUESTION: Are you having fun at the convention? It looks exciting and energetic! Compared to other conventions you've attended, how does the tone of this one hold up? (from Lauren in New Hampshire)

BOB SCHIEFFER Lauren, I'm having the time of my life and I always do. Conventions are one of my favorite things. I thought the convention in Denver ran about as well as the Democrats could've hoped. The production was flawless and the speakers were some of the best I've ever heard. And seeing 84,000 people in one place to hear a political speech was really remarkable.

QUESTION: How is it decided which 's convention goes first? (from Charlotte in Alabama)

BOB SCHIEFFER Charlotte, as a general rule the party out of power goes first.

-- SEE SITE FOR REST OF INTERVIEWS

91

T. Boone Pickens Predicts $200 A Barrel Oil

by Scott Conroy

August 27, 2008

(DENVER) In town for the Democratic convention to promote his “Pickens Plan” for alternative energy, billionaire oilman T. Boone Pickens predicted $200 a barrel oil within three years.

“In two or three years, we’re going to be at $200 a barrel—could be $300 a barrel for oil,” Pickens said inside the “Big Tent,” a complex outside the Pepsi Center set up for bloggers. “And consequently, our economy is going to struggle and our security is just—it’s a disaster.”

Pickens was joined on stage by Sierra Club president Carl Pope and Center for American Progress president , both of whom endorsed The Pickens Plan, although each called for additional proposals.

Pickens said the United States is blessed with “two corridors” that are conducive to alternative energy sources: the “wind corridor” from Texas to Canada and the “solar corridor” from Texas to California. Although Pickens said he agreed with Al Gore that global warming is a major problem, his first priority is to help reverse the tide of sending billions of dollars overseas for America’s energy needs.

“I can promise you, if we go ten years without doing anything more than what we’ve done about our energy plan in America, if we just duplicate the last ten years, it’ll be closer to ten trillion dollars,” Pickens said. “Well, a sad part about that is if we pay ten trillion dollars for energy from foreign sources in the next ten years, I can tell you we don’t have to worry about health care or education. We’re not going to have the money to do anything about it.”

Pickens said that hundreds of thousands of new jobs could be created in the alternative energy corridors.

“We’re not talking about me and my generation,” Pickens said. “I can make it to the finish line, and some of you out there I see could too, but there’s a lot of you can, but our kids and grandkids can’t, and that’s what it’s about. We have got to change what we’re doing on energy. We’ve

92 gone 40 years with no plan. My dad said, ‘A fool with a plan, son, will beat a genius with no plan.’ We are like a fool with no plan. We have done nothing.”

93

Bloggers Work – And Socialize – Inside Denver’s “Big Tent”

by Brian Montopoli

August 26, 2008

(DENVER) A few blocks from the Pepsi Center on Tuesday afternoon, about a hundred bloggers were gathered inside “The Big Tent,” a two-story, white tent set up for bloggers to use during the Democratic National Convention.

Jen Bruenjes, a contributing editor at the liberal blog Daily Kos, one of the tent’s three primary sponsors, said about 500 bloggers had been credentialed to work out of the space; they paid $100 for the privilege, and in exchange got two meals a day, free wi-fi (“a bigger wireless network than the Denver airport,” Bruenjes said), free beer, and the company of their peers.

“We did this to create a resource for bloggers and new media,” said Bruenjes, who did much of the work to organize the tent. “The feedback that we got from 2004 was that much of the convention stuff was actually really boring. And we wanted to create a place where we could gather and work and mingle.”

The convention’s host committee, she said, welcomed the effort to set up the tent.

“It was a relief valve for them,” said Bruenjes. “They didn’t have the resources to accommodate the number of bloggers that wanted to come to Denver.”

Josh Kalven, a blogger with Progress Illinois, said the situation for bloggers in Denver was a substantial improvement over the Democratic convention in Boston in 2004.

“The degree of blogger access and hospitality towards bloggers definitely exceeds the last time around,” he said. “It’s definitely a testament to the way the medium pervades the political debate. “

The majority of the bloggers in the tent are liberal, though Bruenjes says there are a handful of conservatives credentialed. On the second floor, there is a stage set up where speakers hold court each day, discussing topics like the importance of independent journalism.

Cary Wilson, who blogs at Democratic Underground under the name Hissyspit, compared the

94 Big Tent favorably to the blogger lounge set up inside the Pepsi Center area – where there wasn’t working wi-fi access when he visited yesterday.

“The Big Tent’s great,” he said. “It’s kind of a central working point. It could be bigger. But it’s a rather happening place. You meet lots of fellow bloggers, and get tips on where things are happening.”

As for the efforts of the Democratic Party to accommodate bloggers at the convention, Wilson echoed the prevailing attitude in the room.

“I think they’ve come a long way,” he said. “And could go a lot further too.”

95

Unconventional Coverage On The Web

by Larry Magid

August 25, 2008

Larry Magid On How Google, YouTube And Bloggers Will Affect Audience Access To Conventions

(CBS) Whoever takes the White House in 2008 can thank Google for helping. The search giant will be at both conventions, encouraging delegates to use YouTube and other Google services to share their impressions of the proceedings.

At the Democratic convention, Google will also be one of the sponsors of "The Big Tent," an 8,000-square-foot, two-story structure where bloggers and other new media journalists can watch and cover the convention and question party dignitaries who will speak from the "Digg Stage."

The tent will accommodate citizen journalists who might not be able to get credentialed by the party to work out of the nearby Pepsi Center, where the convention is taking place.

In addition to work space, the tent will provide food, beverages and massages, as well as workshops on blogging, video and other technologies.

Google also will have people at the convention helping delegates, bloggers and reporters upload video, photographs and blog postings. (Naturally, they will encourage people to use Google properties including YouTube, Blogger.com and the Picasa photo service.)

This isn't the first time people have blogged a convention. In 2004, both parties credentialed some bloggers as journalists. But these are the first conventions since the advent of YouTube.

Google, which owns YouTube, will set up kiosks at the conventions where delegates can give their impressions of what's happening. Also, YouTube expects to Webcast all of the speeches, not just the ones that make prime-time network broadcasts. Because YouTube and other video sites can archive footage forever, there will be an enduring record of what goes on that will be available almost immediately after each speech.

Having covered past conventions, I remember seeing dignitaries and party activists delivering speeches in the afternoon with no network TV coverage and very few delegates listening. Now it's possible for speakers to have perpetual bragging rights by posting links to their convention speeches on their Web sites.

Obscure speeches will not be the only ones that will go online. Interested people who won't be sitting in front of their TVs during prime-time coverage can later watch major speeches or

96 convention video, such as profiles of the candidates.

"At previous conventions, the parties and candidates would hope that the video would be shown to the television audience, and if you were at home watching you might see it," said Andrew Rasiej, co-founder of TechPresident.com. "But if you didn't catch the video about in 2004, your ability to see that video was pretty much lost." Rasiej called services like YouTube "the TiVo of our society."

In addition to what happens on the convention floor, numerous activities will take place outside the halls, including parties and protest rallies. Except when rallies turn disruptive, they are generally ignored by the media and delegates. But now that virtually everyone has a camera or camcorder on their cell phone, when something happens there's a good chance it will be memorialized and posted on the Web.

Personally, I'm excited about the expanded coverage afforded by bloggers and audio and video podcasters. I think the big TV networks will play the important role of bringing the big speeches to our homes during prime time and the cable networks will do their best to provide the usual array of perspective from their talking-head analysts. But the blogosphere and video sites will provide views and perspectives that people - especially political junkies - would otherwise miss.

I think new media makes up for what big media companies no longer cover. That's not true of all of journalism - bloggers don't have the resources, for example, to adequately cover wars and other important international events. But the blogosphere can do an excellent job in bringing us news and perspective of what happens in Denver and Minneapolis-St. Paul.

And of course, big media companies will also use the Web to expand their coverage. CBS News anchor Katie Couric , for example, will host a live Webcast at 11:00 each night that will address questions submitted here , and (as has been the case for quite a while) CBS and other network Web sites will archive portions of their TV coverage as well as Web-only footage so people can access it when and where they want.

97

Bloggers Out in Force at Denver Convention

by Judson Berger

August 26, 2008

Just about every group is represented at this year’s Democratic National Convention.

Recreate ‘68 is trying stir anti-war upheaval outside the enclosed Pepsi Center complex. Anarchists are actually keeping a schedule of meetings. Even Trojan Condoms has set up shop outside the convention gates.

And when it comes to new media, the Mile High City has pitched a Big Tent - literally.

Hundreds of liberal bloggers from across the country are huddling in a two-story tent set up just for them. The tent is a mish-mash of Internet subcultures, and serves as the off-site nerve center for new media.

While some 500 bloggers crunched out Web content from the main room Tuesday afternoon, users posted videos on “Why are you a Democrat in 2008?” to YouTube at a nearby computer station. The latest headlines capturing offbeat political views from Digg.com streamed across a wide screen monitor at the front desk.

“Outrageous! Police Trap Peaceful Protesters in Denver”

“Limbaugh Falsely Claims America Is ‘Conservative Majority’”

“McCain Meeting With D-List Celebrities”

Those were just a few.

Upstairs spoke in the Digg.com-sponsored lecture room on the shortcomings of the mainstream media, particularly in their handling of the Iraq war.

Rather emboldened his Webbie audience to blog and besiege the ramparts of establishment media as part of their patriotic duty.

“Much of the press is rolling over and playing dead. … American journalism is in need of a spine transplant,” he said. “Your country needs you now more than ever.”

98 In the bloggers’ quarters, Todd Beeton, of MyDD.com, said he and his blog are focusing on countering the mainstream media stories that play up tensions between Hillary Clinton’s supporters and Barack Obama. Just about every major newspaper carried a story Tuesday morning about division in the party ranks, in the lead-up to Clinton’s speech this evening.

“It seems like all the media can talk about is the disarray. I mean they love that storyline and I get that,” Beeton said. “But the idea that there’s going to be some coup or the idea that there’s division, honestly, in this delegation is ridiculous.”

Lucas O’Connor, of the California-centric site Calitics.com, said the bloggers are filling in with the kind of personal touch that the mainstream media lack.

“It’s a more personal perspective I think. The traditional media has a role that requires a broader story to be told, whereas we can kind of burrow down into the more granular politics,” he said. “One of the things about blogging is that by doing it regularly and just kind of on a rolling basis, it’s more of an opportunity to create a narrative as opposed to creating an isolated story.”

O’Connor said one of the recent challenges for his ilk has been blogging against the Iraq war - because they’ve been doing it for so long.

“At some point people just get burned out on it. So it’s a constant challenge to find new angles and keep people plugged into it,” he said.

Liberal blog Daily Kos, The Alliance for Sustainable Colorado and Progress Now are sponsoring the blogger headquarters.

The Alliance’s Aaron Nelson said 3,000 applied for credentials and 500 were accepted. His group is hosting a series of speakers, including oilman-turned-alternative-energy-champion T. Boone Pickens on Wednesday.

Bloggers also have their own lounge in the Pepsi Center, where the convention is being held. Those at the so-called Big Tent Tuesday said the accommodations for bloggers this year are unprecedented.

But the Big Tent could have been a bit bigger.

Daily Kos bloggers sitting on the sofa in the back of the room seemed to have no interest in talking to FOXNews.com.

Asked if they could spare a couple minutes, they grimaced until their honcho said, “No,” and they went back to blogging.

On the bright side, the Google stand was handing out smoothies. Their West Coast cafeteria is renowned for its food and the mango beverage did not disappoint.

99

Digg Puts Focus on Politics, Bringing Charges of Liberal Bias

by Simon Owens

September 4, 2008

Last week, Digg CEO sat in a crowded room in Denver holding a stack of papers while facing a camera and trying to project his voice over the cacophony around him. Next to him sat a tired-looking U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, who had taken a break from the Democratic National Convention to meet with Adelson.

The two were participating in a new project launched by Digg in conjunction with CNN’s iReport called Digg Dialogg . After a brief introduction, Adelson asked Pelosi, “Please describe what Net Neutrality is and your position on the issue.” The question had been written by Digg user maverick999 and was one of thousands that had been submitted in prior days.

True to its democratic form, Digg allowed users to give a thumbs-up or -down on each question, essentially permitting the community to choose which questions to ask the Speaker. For approximately 20 minutes, the Digg CEO read one question after the next — on issues ranging from medicinal marijuana use to the Democratic Congress’ opposition to the Bush Administration — pausing for a few moments between each one to allow Pelosi to offer a response.

Such a high profile interview is indicative of Digg’s growing role in U.S. politics. Originally a site that focused almost solely on technology issues, in June 2006 Digg launched a new version that allowed users to submit stories in a much broader range of categories (Technology, Science, World & Business, Videos, Entertainment and Gaming). Since that time, its political section has become among its most popular, but has also caused complaints from users who liked the old technology focus and from those that believe the site is biased toward a liberal point of view.

With over 3 million registered users, Digg has been a driving force in online media, sometimes able to propel stories into the national spotlight. The site is responsible for creating a barrage of early buzz and massive online fundraising for former presidential candidate Ron Paul. It has also been heavily utilized by Obama supporters to promote the campaign’s social network, YouTube videos

100 and email newsletter. And this year Digg has sponsored events at both political party conventions, including the Big Tent in Denver that hosted hundreds of bloggers and new media journalists.

In a phone interview last week, Adelson told me that within three months of opening up its submissions categories, non-tech stories were being dugg more than tech items. Now, more than two years later, he said that tech stories make up only 10 percent of the links that are submitted to the site every day.

“I would say we have kept our flavor,” he said. “We kept our early adopters’ useful energy, even across the other sections of the site. It’s pretty clear it has become an important medium for these micro-communities that have sprouted up, including one for technology.”

He explained that the site is becoming more and more compartmentalized, with many users customizing the front page so that only the categories that interest them are shown. And with the beta launch of a new “recommendations” section, Digg administrators are attempting to modify each user’s experience based on his or her past digging history.

101

Bloggers Make Progress Covering Convention at DNC

by Laura Hertzfeld

August 28, 2008

DENVER — Even for members of the traditional media here in Denver, access to floor seating at the convention has been scarce, and talk time with politicians and celebrities at the Democratic National Convention is a game of persistence and luck. Some days you see all the newsmakers, other days you’re stuck on the outside with the gawkers, watching Anderson Cooper do your job.

But for the bloggers who followed all the DNC rules and took advantage of never-before-seen opportunities to cover the convention in Denver, access has been unprecedented, and relationships between the party and the bloggers who cover it are improving.

“We’re definitely being treated as press by the people that matter,” Pam Pohly of EverydayCitizen.com told me. “The DNC has been fabulous.”

Pohly added that the party even explained some journalism-lingo terms to her when they were unclear in memos to the press.

“They’ll write back and explain,” she said. “They’ve said they’re honored to have us.”

FLOOR ACCESS STILL TRICKY

That said, like anything new, accessibility has not come without its challenges. State delegations control the floor access for the journalists that cover their local regions. So when a state isn’t on board with helping out new media, the party can do little to enforce the rules. Pohly said her Internet connection and charging station weren’t accessible at her embed with the delegation and that she had trouble getting information about delegate events outside the Pepsi Center.

“I’m a party person turned new media, not the other way around; that’s why it was shocking to me,” she said.

It takes about three tries to find the right place to go at the Pepsi Center to find the bloggers in their main filing space. It’s not well marked, and many have complained about having trouble knowing

102 where to go. Few of the security officials I spoke with had any clue where there “bloggers lounge” even was.

But in the Big Tent , with familiar logos like Digg and Google, the bloggers have a respite to themselves, away from the traditional media facilities in the Pepsi Center parking lot, complete with smoothie bar and massage chairs at the Google retreat. Is all this fueling jealousy between new and old media?

The old media bloggers “get it,” said Sarah Burris, a blogger for Rock the Trail, Rock the Vote’s blog. Burris said she respects bloggers for publications like Talking Points Memo and the Huffington Post because “they allow the opportunity to take a story and really report on it without being in fear of a crazy editor.”

So who’s reading what? Has all the work the party and the bloggers are putting in been worth it? An informal poll from MediaBistro’s FishbowlDC found that most news junkies are following the conventions with C-SPAN on TV and Roll Call online.

Will the Republican National Convention be as responsive to the blog world as the DNC has been? We’ll find out next week.

Laura Hertzfeld is the producer for PBS’ elections sites online, including PBS Vote 2008 . She is credentialed as media through PBS to cover the conventions and will be reporting for MediaShift from both confabs. All photos here were taken by her; you can see all of them via her Flickr stream .

103

The Best 2008 Political Convention Coverage Online

by Mark Glaser

August 28, 2008

In 2004, the major political conventions gave a few dozen bloggers press credentials, a historic moment for the new media outsiders. And this year, the political conventions have tried to be even more open to bloggers, video reporters, podcasters and new media. The Democratic convention credentialed 120 bloggers, and the GOP has credentialed 200 bloggers, according to Forbes .

And the Democratic convention taking place in Denver this week also includes the Big Tent , a hangout for new media types outside the convention sponsored by Google and Digg. There have been panel discussions, appearances by political dignitaries and free beer, smoothies and massages there. (Simon Owens looked at the Big Tent in-depth for MediaShift last week.)

But perhaps the more interesting trend at the conventions this year is that it’s more difficult to tell bloggers from the mainstream media bloggers. As traditional media embraces a multi- platform approach, including their audience in citizen media reports, the distinction between who deserves a media credential and who doesn’t has blurred like never before.

One example: Social-news site Digg and CNN’s citizen media-generated iReport are co-producing Digg Dialogg , where Digg’ers and other concerned citizens can ask questions to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The questions are then rated “thumbs up” or “thumbs down,” with the most popular being asked to Pelosi in a special Q&A with Digg CEO Jay Adelson. (No. 1 question so far: “Please describe what Net Neutrality is and your position on the issue.”)

INSIDERS OR OUTSIDERS?

Perhaps the more interesting question is whether indie bloggers and new media folks are now becoming a part of the mainstream at the same time the mainstream is reaching out and using the tactics of the independents. When the staid C-SPAN network is lauded by TechCrunch for using live- streaming Qik cams at the political conventions, you can feel change in the air for the media.

For example, independent bloggers in the Big Tent have already succeeded in getting big names to participate in panels and interviews — from Arianna Huffington to Dan Rather and Sen.

104 (D-Ill.). At what point does blog coverage become indistinguishable from coverage by mainstream media?

“It does make you wonder. This blog culture that grew up outside of the traditional media, are we starting to step up to the stage and be with them as equals?” Daily Kos blogger Georgia Logothetis told the National Journal .

Actually, some of the hardest-hitting work so far at the Democratic convention has come from bloggers outside the traditional media. Sunlight Foundation set up a special Party Time blog to track which corporate sponsors were holding pricey shindigs for which lobbyists and politicians. In a similar vein, Salon’s reported on a lavish AT&T party for Blue Dog Democrats that barred members of the press, including bloggers.

While citizen-generated media has an increased presence at the conventions these days, that populist ethos has yet to alter the fundamental nature of the conventions itself. Even with a few hundred independent bloggers in the mix, there are 15,000 total press in attendance at the conventions from around the world.

The political parties themselves could do a lot more to include their audiences outside the convention hall. TechPresident blogger Micah Sifry, who decided to stay home to watch the event on TV and online this year, said the conventions could do better :

This week, something like 20 million people will tune in each night to watch the conventions, but I’d be surprised if either the Democrats or the Republicans try to create any kind of interactive community out of that audience. Yes, they did a YouTube contest to find a representative “average person” to give them a free pass to attend, and yes, they’re using tools like blogs and Flickr to keep us informed on how the conventions are taking shape. But in terms of making the actual events more engaging, they’re probably spending more time worrying about the timing of the balloon drop.

FOLLOWING THE CONVENTIONS ONLINE

So where do you start when looking for convention coverage online? With so many news outlets, bloggers, live video streams and Twitterers, what’s standing out? The following is a guide to some of the better sites covering the conventions. With so many voices in the mix, the best way to start is with aggregators that can give you a snapshot of what’s happening in various online platforms and communities.

105

Will the Big Tent in Denver Help Bloggers Break Through?

by Simon Owens

August 20, 2008

Mark Glaser is on vacation this week, but we are happy to have blogger/journalist Simon Owens filling in as guest blogger. Here is his report on the upcoming Democratic Convention.

As the 2008 Democratic Convention quickly approaches, thousands of journalists will begin swarming into Denver for what is sure to be an around-the-clock media event. Reporters will interview throngs of convention goers to examine every facet of the political landscape and the implications it has for the upcoming election.

Among these mainstream media bees will be a wave of new media journalists appearing out of the Wild West of the Internet to lay at least partial claim to the stories that will be emerging from the convention. A number of these bloggers will be working at a location outside the building in a facility appropriately called the Big Tent Denver . Whether these new media reporters will be able to produce compelling convention coverage without constant access to its participants remains to be seen.

Inside the Pepsi Center itself, there will be approximately 50 bloggers — one from each state — who applied for and received press passes to attend the event. Though only a few blogger passes were offered at the 2004 convention, the rise of new media since then has made a blogger presence a necessity now. Conferences organized by bloggers are now attended by well-known figures and politicians, and several major news stories have been uncovered by citizen journalists armed simply with Blogspot and Wordpress accounts.

So this year there wasn’t even a question as to whether bloggers would be admitted into the Democratic National Convention; it was just a matter of how many. Still, several bloggers expressed disappointment when the DNC only handed out 50 blogger passes. It was in the midst of this disappointment that the announcement for the Big Tent was made.

HUGE DEMAND FOR TENT ACCESS

106 Hosted by Daily Kos, Progress Now, and the Alliance for Sustainable Colorado, the Big Tent will be a 9,000-square foot, two-story erected structure a few blocks away from the Pepsi Center where the convention will be held. It will be specifically geared toward new media — bloggers, podcasters, vloggers— and its sponsors include both Google and Digg.

Aaron Nelson, project director for the Alliance for Sustainable Colorado, told me that the discussion for organizing the tent began about seven or eight months ago.

“We recognize that more and more people are turning to new media and as a result new media has become a powerful driving force,” he said. “We’re providing access to resources and platforms to discuss politics and sustainability. We made it a non- event and bloggers that have access to our tent represent this. For example we have people from Daily Kos and we also have bloggers from the Heritage Foundation — completely different sides of the spectrum.”

The organization received over 3,000 applications for those who wanted to attend the Big Tent, but because of spacing restrictions and fire codes, only a fraction of those were accepted. Though the final count is a “moving target,” as he put it, there will likely be around 300 bloggers and other new media journalists who will participate.

I asked Nelson what benefit the bloggers would have at the tent, given that they wouldn’t get access to the building where the convention is actually being held. The bloggers, for instance, wouldn’t be able to walk among the convention-goers and use that atmosphere to provide context to their reporting. Why wouldn’t a blogger just stay home and watch the event on his television?

“Well, we’re going to try a couple things,â € he said. “First, we’re trying to develop partnerships and momentum to lure convention participants over to our tent. Being half a block outside the security line, we think it’ll be simpler than maybe otherwise. The other incentive is that we simply provide a gathering place with access to resources, including food and WiFi. These are the kinds of resources that the new media hasn’t experienced at any other major national event.â €

WHO GETS IN AND WHO DOESN’T

Though the organizers are still pulling together much of the programming and offerings that will be available, he said the tent will likely beam out live streaming video — what he called the “Virtual Big Tent” — so that Internet viewers who are not able to attend can watch the events inside the facility unfold.

I asked him to explain the breakdown of the tent and how those who aren’t credentialed Big Tent bloggers will be able to move about the facility. Would convention-goers be allowed to wander in?

“There’s a small part of the space sponsored by Google that is accessible by people,” Nelson responded. “But the majority of the tent will be for credentialed bloggers only. The second floor of the tent will be the media lounge and nobody but the credentialed people will be allowed up there. The ground floor will have a bit more multi-use, so it will have a little more accessibility. But nonetheless there will only be a limited number of spots for those who don’t have reservations.”

107 Valerie Reynolds, like many of the bloggers I interviewed for this article, first found out about the Big Tent through a press release published on Daily Kos. As a lesbian progressive blogger living in Tennessee, she said that she was driven to online media because she didn’t feel represented by the news outlets in her red state.

Reynolds, 52, runs a horse farm 45 minutes northwest of Nashville and she writes for Avalon Farm Blog , a site that focuses on a number of issues ranging from LGBT rights to blues music. With her background in radio, she also operates a podcast that functions as a spin-off from her blog.

“Basically I just wanted to be there at this historic event,” she said of the convention. “I wanted to be part of it, both as a podcaster and also to shoot video. I’ve got the gear, I know how to use it, and I’m pretty good at interviewing. I thought why not just place myself in the middle of it and see what stories develop.”

I asked Reynolds how the Big Tent would fit into the larger realm of media coverage at the convention, and whether it would serve as an effective alternative to more mainstream news outlets.

“I think the more voices that are in the conversation, the richer the dialog is going to be,” she responded. “The big thing with bloggers is there is no gatekeeper, you’re not hearing the message of the day, you’re hearing it as it happens. Depending on the level of expertise and the talent, it’s like having an eyewitness for you. What I love about the Big Tent is that they were so open to diversity.”

BRINGING REGIONAL ISSUES TO THE FORE

Both Matt Reichbach and Tracy Viselli will be viewing the Big Tent through a regional lens — he for his blog focusing on New Mexico politics and she for her site centered around downtown development in Reno, Nevada.

“I really want to focus on some of our local or state stories,” Viselli told me. “For instance, not only is Nevada a swing state, my county is considered the swing county in the state. Also, we have the possibility of electing our first all-female congressional delegation, which is really exciting.”

She explained that her “over-arching narrative” at the Big Tent will be written from the point of view of a female progressive blogger from a swing state, a fact that she believes gives her a unique perspective.

For his part, Reichbach said he’d try to focus on New Mexico and Western issues, hopefully getting one-on-one interviews with key legislators from his area.

“I’m sure there’s going to be plenty of opportunities to focus on the west since it’s in Colorado,” he said. “Democratic candidates from New Mexico are going to be over there and I’m going to try to talk to them. Actually something we’ve been doing on our blog a lot lately is podcasts through Blog . It’s basically just an online radio show that people can listen to live and can call into.”

SKEPTICISM ABOUT THE BIG TENT

108 Despite the enthusiasm of many of the Big Tent participants I spoke to, there has been a fair amount of skepticism as well. In the comments section of an Alternet article about the tent, one person wrote that “any learned, critical thinking, reasoned human being would realize that this is a charade to sugar up and pacify the progressive community.”

“‘Walking distance’ from the convention?” another person wrote. “The first commenter is right: this is a joke. It’s called a ‘consolation prize.’”

I spoke to Sarah Granger, a blogger who has directed Internet strategy for a few campaigns and writes regularly for several sites. She is one of the few bloggers who will have access to both the convention itself and the Big Tent; she’ll be attending with several other writers from MOMocrats , and the group will be sharing a single blogger pass to the Pepsi Center, switching back and forth between it and the tent. I asked her whether the Big Tent would be a viable alternative to the news outlets that will have more around-the-clock access to the convention-goers.

“It’s going to be different,” she said. “It’s going to be a different group of people that are there. There won’t be as much bumping into the Congressmen in the hallway, it’ll be more of networking with other bloggers. That does have a lot of value too, it’s just going to be different, I think.”

I pressed further, asking, “Do you think it’ll be less value at all, because the bloggers are not going to be on the ground in the convention?”

“I think that having worked for a number of candidates and elected officials, I think they have their own sort of agendas, and mostly they’ll want to network with each other while they’re there,” Granger responded. “But I would not be surprised if some of them reserved some time to come talk to the media. I just don’t honestly believe that everyone is going to come out to the Big Tent. I don’t think they will. Also, a lot of people don’t understand the power of the blogosphere, so they may or may not be that tapped into it quite yet.”

In a July 14 Huffington Post piece , Granger complained about the lack of communications from the DNCC when it comes to what access credentialed bloggers will have, including what kind of Internet will be offered and how the final night at Invesco Field will affect them.

In our interview, she said that one advantage to the Big Tent is that the organizers have been much better at talking to the bloggers and giving them the logistics of what to expect.

“They have been very good about explaining their whole process of applying,” Granger said. “And they’ve been very good about getting back to us. Like we had one person in our group who applied under a different blog name, and due to a family emergency she won’t be able to be there. We wanted to see if we could still use the pass for the group, and they’re working with us to figure out a way to do that. They’ve been very responsive and very helpful, I think.”

What do you think? Will the Big Tent be a good way to get bloggers more access to the Democratic Convention, or is it just a consolation prize? Should the DNC have credentialed more bloggers? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

109 Simon Owens is a 24-year-old newspaper journalist living in Virginia. He writes the Bloggasm blog , launched in late 2005 and focusing on the intersection of new and old media. It often includes in- depth feature articles on a variety of media subjects.

110

In Denver, a Thousand Little Pieces

by David Carr

August 31, 2008

The party held by Vanity Fair and Google on the last night of the Democratic convention in Denver had all the A-list juice you might expect, with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Madeleine Albright mixing it up with , Jamie Foxx and .

Reporters and editors from mainstream media outlets were finally at ease, off deadline, swilling drinks and munching sushi and doughnuts.

Most felt acquitted, having spent punishing amounts of time and effort on an event that was supposed to be short on news, but seemed to generate plenty.

The party is a charming ritual, except this year there seemed to be a few hundred extra faces at what was billed as a tough ticket.

"Who are all these people?" sniffed one editor who had been in the game for years.

"They are your colleagues," I said. "But they may not be your friends."

During the convention, Google had hosted the Big Tent which housed 500 bloggers, vloggers and other nontraditional media types. Google also made sure that these journalistic insurgents were invited to the after-party, people like James Kotecki from Politico, Baratunde Thurston of Jack & Jill Politics, Chuck Olsen of Blogumentary and Noah Kunin of Blanked-Out.

They may not have gotten face time with Chevy Chase, but then they had their own A-list to meet, like a YouTube co-founder, Chad Hurley, Craig Newmark of Craigslist and Chris Hughes, co-founder of Facebook and an Obama strategist.

The new kids are tipping the balance in their favor, certainly compared with 2004. Many big media organizations cut back their presence at conventions this year, in part because conventions are so choreographed and in part because it is not a great time to be throwing money around.

111 But the continuing shift to that is hurting big media is helping small media, to the point that the number of journalistic boots on the ground — if not equal — are at least competitive.

Politico, which also puts out a newspaper, had 40 people in Denver. The Huffington Post had 20 people, Talking Points Memo had 9, Daily Kos had 10, Slate had 7 and Salon had 9. That list is far from comprehensive and does not begin to describe how thoroughly mediated this convention was. (I was talking with Craig Newmark while he blogged in the Big Tent and realized the kids across from him were live-blogging our conversation.)

The numbers are changing the game. Old media have often (not always) regarded bloggers and their ilk as fleas on the dog. If newspapers and networks didn't break the story, the gatecrashers wouldn't have anything to write about. But the new media players who came to Denver were not there just to annotate mainstream coverage: they're in the hunt themselves.

The blabbers still put a frame around the event, and the morning analysis pieces in and The New York Times continue to generate pickup and chatter, but the picture that emerged from this convention was also rendered in a thousand other pixels of coverage. (Most of us were so busy making media that we had little time to consume it — when I checked out of my Denver hotel, I left behind a stack of newspapers and bookmarks that I had set aside to read.) At this convention, depending on where you looked, the Clintons were still fighting from the hills or totally on board; big money got stiffed at the convention or was in full cry; and Senator Joe Biden was a brilliant choice as a vice president or a complete fiasco.

At a panel put on by the Huffington Post midweek, Representative Rahm Emanuel said the big fish were still important, but that they had been joined by others. He said media coverage would be more like "a collective, intuitive consciousness."

He added: "It will be like a school of fish. You won't hear anything, you'll just see the air bubbles and then the whole group will suddenly decide to turn at the same time."

Mainstream media outlets are meeting the insurgency with guerrilla tactics of their own, with major newspapers using huge reporting assets to infuse the 24-hour news cycle with deep reporting and videos.

"You had mainstream reporters wandering around with video cameras, and bloggers doing a lot of original reporting and everything in between," said Arianna Huffington. "At a convention, it is the little pieces that complete the puzzle, and you had all of these sources of input here."

112 Joshua Micah Marshall of Talking Points Memo sees the new media environment as more of an ecosystem than a jungle, "with lots of different sorts of news orgs playing different and sometimes complementary roles."

Some of the coverage was wondrous to behold, but with 15,000 media people in Denver, the meta began to pile up pretty quickly.

"I witnessed some High Noon showdowns with digicams," said Jacob Weisberg, editor in chief of the Slate group. "They'd say, 'Am I interviewing me or am I interviewing you?' These threatened to generate an infinite regression of media coverage, in which you interview me about what I thought about you interviewing me during my interview with you. It made me want to go home and read a book."

Just four years ago, the big white tents at the conventions that housed the media hordes would come to life slowly, with stories from the night before being passed around along with articles from the daily press. Now reporters and editors jack in when they wake up and stay there.

"It used to be you could sort of take it easy in the morning and chat over lunch and then maybe start to fire up some stories by midafternoon," said John F. Harris, editor in chief of Politico and a veteran of The Washington Post. "At this convention, our reporters work from 8 in the morning until midnight."

Politico had a particularly nice run this week, setting up the convention with the McCain housing crisis, detailing some of the sniping between the Clinton and Obama camps and suggesting that made every effort to kill the possibility that Joe Lieberman, the Democrat turned independent, would be nominated for vice president.

And in what may be something of a model for big coverage of events in specific verticals of interest, Politico, a Web site now almost two years old, worked with , providing gossip and news that gave the daily newspaper additional heft and salience.

That sort of hybrid also happens to mirror the way that information is now consumed. Bloggers and political Web sites have come to realize that wisecracking alone will not hold reader interest and that (other than pornography) news is the Web's killer app. They're developing sources, following lines of inquiry and trying to advance specific stories through reporting. And all the best traditional news organizations have come to grips that the news, and the people who consume it, sets its own schedule.

As reporting staffs at newspapers are cut, journalists have spoken of the threat that important civic issues — say, for instance, the first major party nomination of a black candidate — would go undercovered. But almost anyone who wanted to know anything about what was going in Denver could find it somewhere.

113 "I'm certainly preparing Daily Kos for the day when Internet and television are one and the same," said Markos Moulitsas, the founder of Daily Kos, which estimated its traffic at 37 million page views for the busy month of August. "One of our jobs is to wrestle as much of that away from them as possible. A few gatekeeping elites shouldn't be allowed that much influence."

114

Lost in a Convention Haze, With Bloggers Lurking at Every Turn

by David Carr

August 25, 2008

The first working day of a party convention is never going to be a comfortable one. Credentials will be misplaced, procedures will be unknown, and routes will be circuitous, often ending in the wrong place.

Even convention luminaries like Joe Scarborough, Al Sharpton and Bill Kristol got caught up in security hiccups in the morning, but they took it in good humor because it rarely ends in tears. Convention veterans know that it takes awhile for the temporary village of a huge event to assemble itself. By Thursday, we will all know our place in the hierarchy, if not the world, and it will all seem routine. (And then it will be time to schlep over to Invesco Field and begin the process anew. Yeow. We can all see Invesco Field from the lots around the Pepsi Center, but the pragmatists among us know that you can’t get there from here.)

For the time being, everyone knows who the cool kids are — Barack, Hillary, Michelle, Bill — but no one knows where to stand. And this is a year of profound change in both political and media dynamics. The doors to the backrooms have been blown open, and a large rearray is under way.

And the age-old process of reporting no longer attains. For decades, the Bagger and his colleagues have stepped up to people with notebooks and pens, asked grave or silly questions and written down the grave or silly answers we got in return. But reporting has become a performance art. Each time there was a reporting stop — at a small McCain counterdemonstration, a Hillary counterdemonstration, or in the bloggers’ tent — the people formerly known as the audience refused to behave like one. They brandished video cams, iPhones and recorders, doing their own documentation of what was under way.

The reporting challenge was complicated by the fact that once you leave the bubble, Denver has very broad streets arrayed over a huge place. Tasked with hitting those mean

115 streets, the Carpetbagger hopped on one of the free bikes being handed out by a do-good eco-group. The bike allowed him to get lost much more quickly.

Once he got off the bike, it was still tough to find his bearings. When the Bagger stopped to interview Max Loveless, a college Republican who was one of eight kids waving McCain signs — “Drill Now!” said one — three of his buddies whipped out video cameras and started filming the proceedings. When the Bagger stopped in the Big Tent and talked to Craig Newmark , the founder of Craigslist , a blogger nearby perked his ears up from three feet away and started live blogging the conversation. And when the Bagger noticed that Clinton supporters were staging a protest at MSNBC’s open-air studio behind Union Station, he stopped to ask a few people what the fuss was about and was immediately surrounded by a thicket of recording devices.

“I think when you think about the network democracy or participatory democracy thing, this is a turning point in American history,” Mr. Newmark said, “potentially realizing the vision of the founders of this country because they and we wanted a more direct form of democracy. And with the Internet, we can start moving a little bit more in that direction.”

What Mr. Newmark, who disrupted an entire industry with his free community of ads, said was all the more interesting because some of it was taking place as we spoke.

Conventions are derided as scripted affairs, but this one has no single script. The Clinton supporters in particular are unwilling to go along with what many see as a foreordained week. Their acronym, PUMA, stands for “Party Unity My (bottom),” and they chanted lustily about a stolen election, bad caucuses and traitorous leaders. In the backdrop of “Hardball,” they were enough to all but drown out Chris Matthews and his guests, forcing him to address the drama unfolding right behind him.

“I feel like the Democrats have not been practicing democracy,” said Jane Rizzo, a protester who came here from California. “I have been a Democrat for 30 years and have voted the party all the way down to dogcatcher. Not so this year.”

No one knows if she or her cohort will make good on that threat. And no one knows if the blog insurgency will overtake the consensus emanating from the big media buildings on the parking lot of the press center. It’s the first day, after all, and the knitting and bonding that will occur in the ensuing days may make vast chasms close up quickly. But right now, Denver feels less like one big tent than one that is under construction.

116

The year of the political blogger has arrived

by Amanda M. Fairbanks

August 22, 2008

WHEN Pam Spaulding heard from two contributors to her blog, Pam’s House Blend, that they couldn’t afford to attend the Democratic National Convention, she knew that historic times called for creative measures.

Getting convention credentials for her blog, a news site for the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community, was the easy part. As air fare, lodging and incidentals began piling up, paying for the trip to Denver became the bigger obstacle.

For Ms. Spaulding, 45, who works full time as an IT manager at Duke University Press in Durham, N.C., blogging is her passion, an unpaid hobby she pursues at nights and on weekends. So she called on her 5,500 daily readers to help raise funds: “Send the Blend to Denver” reads the ChipIn widget on her blog’s home page that tracks donations from readers; so far they have pledged more than $5,000 to transport Ms. Spaulding and three other bloggers to the convention.

Beginning Monday, hundreds of bloggers will descend on Denver to see Barack Obama accept his party’s nomination. Next week, hundreds more will travel to St. Paul to witness John McCain’s acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention. But now these online partisans, many of whom are self-financed, must contend with all the logistical and financial hurdles just to get there — not to mention the party politics happening behind the scenes.

This year, both parties understand the need to have greater numbers of bloggers attend. While many Americans may watch only prime-time television broadcasts of the convention speeches, party officials also recognize the ability of bloggers to deliver minute-by-minute coverage of each day’s events to a niche online audience.

“The goal is to bring down the walls of the convention and invite in an audience that’s as large as possible,” said Aaron Myers, the director of online communications for the Democratic National Convention Committee. “Credentialing more bloggers opens up all sorts of new audiences.”

But some bloggers see the procurement of credentials as less of a privilege and more of a right, in recognition of their grass-roots influence. “This is stuff we deserve — we helped the party get people elected,” said Matt Stoller, a political consultant and a contributor to the blog Open Left, who worked as the volunteer in charge of getting credentials for bloggers at the Democratic convention four years ago. “Maybe in 2004 it was about being accommodating and innovative — but this time around there’s a real fight for power in the party.” The major political parties first gave credentials to bloggers in 2004. The Republicans allowed a dozen bloggers to attend their convention in New York, while the Democrats gave bloggers 35 seats in the nosebleed section of the Fleet Center in Boston.

117 This year, the R.N.C. gave credentials to 200 bloggers as a means to “get Senator McCain’s message out to more people,” said Joanna Burgos, the press secretary of the convention.

For bloggers attending the Democratic convention at the Pepsi Center in Denver, two types of credentials are offered. The first is a national credential, which offers the same access granted to members of traditional news media organizations.

The second, more coveted credential is the state blogger credential. It allows one blogger per state to cover the convention alongside its state delegation, with unlimited floor access. Inspired by the strategy of Howard Dean, the D.N.C. chairman, to organize in all 50 states, the state- blogging credential was highly sought after, with as many as 14 blogs vying to represent a single state.

D.N.C. organizers said the recipients of these credentials were chosen by looking at the posts and mission statements of the competing blogs, and at the traffic these sites generated. But controversy soon arose in the blogosphere about whether political favoritism played a role.

“It’s a recognition from the D.N.C. of the work that you’ve done, of your import, your significance,” said Phillip Anderson, 38, whose blog, the Albany Project, has covered New York State politics since 2006. “We were the site the D.N.C. was talking about — we just assumed we would get it,” said Mr. Anderson, who received a national credential instead of the state honor.

Mr. Myers of the Democratic National Convention Committee conceded that tough calls had to be made. “Nobody here, certainly not I, believes there’s only one good blog in every state,” he said. “It’s just not true.” In the last week, the D.N.C. released an additional 100 credentials that will allow multiple contributors from the same blog to cover the convention in tandem.

But the last-minute disbursement of credentials has only exacerbated many bloggers’ frustrations.

“It’s unprecedented access for bloggers, yes, but it’s certainly not equal access,” said Ms. Spaulding, who learned last week that Pam’s House Blend would receive two extra credentials. “What, pray tell, is the big secret?”

The annoyance felt by many bloggers is familiar to those who previously attended conventions as correspondents for smaller print publications. “This is very reminiscent of being at the low end of the totem pole,” said Micah Sifry, the co-founder of the group blog Techpresident.com, who formerly wrote for The Nation magazine and attended his first convention in 1984. “They can’t buy a sky box, they’re scrambling.”

One perk that bloggers will have access to in Denver is the Big Tent, an 8,000-square-foot two- story structure adjacent to where the convention is being held. For a $100 entrance fee, 400 credentialed bloggers will be allowed to enter the air-conditioned space, hosted by a of progressive blogs and organizations and sponsored by the Web sites Google and Digg, where they can eat meals and find work spaces with Wi-Fi.

“I’m telling everyone to meet me at the Big Tent,” said Fred Gooltz, 30, an online strategist with Advomatic, a Web development and strategy firm. “That’s where I’ll be meeting everyone else who’s like me, folks that I’ve only met online or blogged and e-mailed with.” Mr. Gooltz sees

118 the $100 fee as a bargain, especially since he would rather network “with movementarians, who see themselves as a progressive movement, separate from the Democratic Party hierarchy.”

Markos Moulitsas, whose Web site, the Daily Kos, is one of the Big Tent’s organizers, said he would probably remain in the tent for much, if not all, of the convention. “I have no interest in going to the convention hall and chances are I will not,” he said. “There’s nothing happening in the convention hall that would justify braving the long security lines and crowds.”

For bloggers who do not wield as much influence as Mr. Moulitsas, paying for the trip to Denver meant appealing directly to their readers for contributions — an uneasy bargain for many writers who value their independence.

This summer marked the first time that Mr. Anderson of the Albany Project asked readers for donations on his own behalf. “I would never go to my readers and say, I really need a vacation,” said Mr. Anderson, who makes his living as a consultant, and earns a few thousand dollars a year from the advertising revenue his blog generates. “It’s kind of humbling that people value what we’re doing to the point where they’re willing to give us $20.”

Through contributions as small as $5 or $10, Mr. Anderson said, he was able to raise about $1,500 for his Denver trip.

John Odum, 40, the lead author of the political blog Green Mountain Daily, felt similarly conflicted. Though his readers did supply him with a new laptop computer on his 40th birthday, Mr. Odum, who lives in Montpelier, Vt., and works for a local environmental nonprofit, was reluctant to ask them for further acts of generosity. In an election year, he said, “People ought to be giving it to a candidate, not giving me their spare money.”

Now a yellow “donate” icon on his site links to a separate PayPal account, where readers can contribute toward Mr. Odum’s estimated $1,000 travel costs. He said he had received enough support to pay for the $400 air fare.

“It takes me back to my hippie-ish youth, thrown in a situation with very little to fall back on and not 100 percent certain where I’ll be sleeping,” Mr. Odum said. He said he might have to unfurl his sleeping bag on someone’s hotel room floor if the housing space he reserved on Craigslist does not pan out.

Among the devoted readers who believe Mr. Odum deserves their donations is Nate Freeman, one of two Democratic candidates for lieutenant governor of . Mr. Freeman, 40, gave about $100 to Mr. Odum’s laptop fund, and said he would contribute $50 for Mr. Odum’s convention trip.

“Barack doesn’t need my 50 bucks,” Mr. Freeman said, “but John does.”

119

What's booking in Denver

by Carolyn Kellogg

August 26, 2008

The hippest place for bloggers in Denver is called The Big Tent . For its $100 entrance fee, it's providing juice for laptops and PDAs (courtesy Google), free WiFi, free burritos and other snacks, yoga space and free mini-facials and hand massages (courtesy the Huffington Post). And it's right next door to one of the country's most famed bookstores, Tattered Cover .

All day Monday, authors visiting The Big Tent took their signings to Tattered Cover, including Markos Moulitsas ("Taking on the System"), Ted Sorenson ("Counselor") and David Sirota ("The Uprising"). It's a serendipitous spillover; I only wish that they'd post pictures.

On Wednesday, another big author will be signing at Tattered Cover: Michael Chabon. Is the author of "The Yiddish Policemen's Union" a sleeper candidate for the Democratic nomination?

120

Bloggers flex muscles in Denver

by Frank James

August 27, 2008

DENVER -- The Mile-High City is teeming with bloggers covering the Democratic National Convention, the undomesticated ones who write for the partisan blogs and the tamer corporate versions like yours truly.

The political bloggers are here because this week Denver is the center of the Democratic Party's political universe. They're here because the national parties know bloggers represent an important new channel for communicating their messages and thus have significantly boosted their outreach to these citizen journalists.

They're here because a netroots power like DailyKos has joined Internet powers like Google and Digg and local organizations like ProgressNow and the Alliance for a Sustainable Colorado to bankroll work and discussion spaces in a downtown office building that this week is called the Big Tent a few blocks from the Pepsi Center. It's sort of a blogger convention within the larger Democratic convention.

So highly regarded are the political bloggers this year that political and media big shots as well as rank-and-file old media/new media hybrids like myself are making the pilgrimage to the blogger lounges at the Big Tent and the Pepsi Center to see what's on their minds.

On Tuesday, Sen. Ken Salazar of Colorado, in his signature cowboy hat, was doing interviews. Not long after he left, CBS News anchor Katie Couric appeared and waded into the crowded blogger workspace to see what they were up too. Even Death Cab for Cutie stopped by.

And what are these bloggers up to? The answers to that are as varied as the bloggers themselves. Some are out to expose the all too cozy relationships between lawmakers and lobbysists. Others are here because of their interests in state and local politics. Still others are searching for a movement that seems elusive.

121 This year, the Democratic National Committee credentialed nearly 100 national poltical blogs and 55 state blogs, with the state bloggers for the first time given floor access so they can sit with their state's delegations. Beyond that, about 500 blogs out of were 3000 applicants were given workspace at the Big Tent.

Many of the bloggers were given the same access to DNC press conferences as reporters for corporate media.

Among them was , of the well-known progressive blog .

When the convention week was barely underway, Hamsher was out doing ambush interviews of guests entering a party thrown by AT&T for the congressional Blue Dogs , House Democrats who represent conservative districts and, as a result, are further to right than most of their fellow House Democrats.

Hamsher saw a link between the AT&T party and the Blue Dogs support for immunity for telecom as part of the recently passed update to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act

She held the video camera while Glenn Greenwald of Salon asked the partygoers who they were and if they knew who was throwing the party all as the citizen journalists were being confronted by police who wanted them to move along. (The video is up on her site.)

"We asked 25 people and not one of them knew who was throwing the party," she said not believing for a second that there was that much ignorance afoot in Denver. "That was one of the more interesting things we've done, asking what's the relationship between the party and lobbyists?" Hamsher said. She says that kind of guerilla journalism is what makes bloggers a welcome addition to American democracy. They don't want to be chummy with politicians like so many professional journalists. "I don't need to talk to Rahm Emanuel," Hamsher said.

But of course, if Emanuel or any other politician wants to tell them things, that's OK too. "The Obama campaign is friendly. They know we often drive the media talking points," said of the Fivethirtyeight.com blog .

Over at the Pepsi Center's blogger's lounge, Andre Walker, a 24-year-old blogger from Georgia, was a delegate at the Democrats' 2004 convention in Boston and tried to get to the Denver convention using a similar route.

Trouble was, he lost his election. His Georgia Politics blog became his ticket in when the DNC awarded him a credential. A Hillary Clinton supporter (Obama didn't have enough experience to suit him) Walker planned on chronicling the Georgia delegation at the convention.

122 "A couple of people I talked to in the Georgia delegation said even if Hillary releases her delegates, they still plan to vote for her on the first ballot, " said Walker who offered Obama a warning. "Obama needs to be delicate (with Clinton supporters) because he doesn't need to lose 18 million votes to lose the election, just a fraction of that."

Knowing Georgia as he does (he's the first blogger in Georgia history to get floor privileges to the state senate floor) Wallker wonders about the 30 campaign offices Obama's team has opened in Georgia including one in Forsyth County.

Not a single elected official is a Democrat. "Somebody in that office said they didn't think they could win the county, they just want to get as many votes across the state as possible. If (Obama) gets 48 percent I'll be impressed. I'm pegging it at 45 percent." That would be marginally better than the 41 percent John Kerry won in 2004.

Daniel DiRito from Denver was also setting up shop at the Pepsi Center's blogger's lounge when I struck up a conversation. He had one of the more ambitious blogging goals. He intended to live stream the convention on his site www.thoughttheater.com.

Formerly in commercial real estate, DiRito is a seeker. He sold his home, spent four months traveling the world to scratch a long-time itch, then returned to blog full-time. DiRito wasn't a partisan during the primaries . "Truthfully, I could've been happy with either Barack or Hillary," he said.

He has seen the tensions splitting the Democratic Party this year within his own family. "My mother hung up on my sister because she canvassed for Barack. She was a staunch Hillary supporter."

DiRito has been mulling over the change message that defines the Obama campaign and the Democratic effort this year.

There needs to be a hunger for change before it can happen but he hasn't sensed in Denver such a hunger among the that could be transformed into a movement. It's not there among the bloggers and other progressives he's encountered at the Pepsi Center or at the Big Tent panel discussions.

"I see the same divisiveness" among bloggers that he saw in his family. "If something doesn't go the way a lot of bloggers think it should go, the first thing they'll say is 'I'm so over this election...' I don't think change comes without compromise" and he sees too little of that, as reflected by the dissension in Democratic ranks. "A lot of bloggers are stirring the pot," he said. "But I'm not so sure what they're cooking."

123

Dem Convention a Hot Spot for Bloggers

by Katie Paul

August 28, 2008

When Machiavelli warned “before all else, be armed,” he probably couldn’t envision how a Youtube videoblogger known as richprince78 would use his advice a few hundred years down the line. Armed with his camera and the support of a buzzing new media presence at the DNC, Iowa City-based Rich Peters, the winner of a joint Youtube/DNC video competition, is one of thousands of new media troops swarming the Democratic National Convention this week to promote their cause.

Shameless DNC PR stunt? Absolutely. But if you’re looking for an on-the-ground look at life at the convention, the kid-with-camera strategy is nifty enough. Peters, a recent law school graduate, has been chronicling his adventures stumping for the Obama campaign since he joined up last November. After Youtube fans voted him in for the DNC slot, he hit the trail with the traveling press pool and roamed the halls of the Pepsi Center, picking up interviews with delegates, activists, protestors, and even NEWSWEEK’s very own Jonathan Alter along the way. All of which is to say that his Youtube channel, www.youtube.com/richprince78 , is pretty well stocked, while maintaining that down-home raw footage charm.

His winning video-an animated run-down of Obama talking points, shown here--will get its national debut at Mile High Stadium Thursday night. For a less rehearsed clip, check out his footage of the mob of bloggers at the two-story New Media tent set up by Google, Youtube, Digg and others. Of the 500 stationed at the ‘Big Tent,’ 125 are credentialed to roam the Pepsi Center and thousands of others are capturing the action on the outside. Armed indeed.

124

The end of blogging

by Clive Crook

August 26, 2008

Daily Kos, the Alliance for Sustainable Colorado, and ProgressNow have organized a week-long programme in the Big Tent, actually a medium-sized building near the convention centre. One panel including Arianna Huffington and Paul Krugman discussed the challenge of getting people to see what is obvious. "We must be willing to listen to people who disagree with us," suggested Mrs Huffington. A novel and valuable thought.

Next, Anne-Marie Slaughter (describing herself as Mr Krugman's boss at Princeton) asked the eponymous Kos ( Markos Moulitsas ), Jane Mayer (author of a new book on civil liberties and ), and (environmental campaigner) to give President Obama "five to seven minutes of advice". They ignored her, even though she set a good example with a crisply stated agenda of her own: close the prison at Guantanamo; apply the Geneva conventions without exception or equivocation; green the economy; rebuild the international institutions so that they give the emerging powers more voice; and combat nuclear proliferation. Are you listening, Mr President?

The others, also with new books to promote, had interesting things to say about them. My reading list keeps growing. And Mr Moulitsas provided the most surprising statistic of the week. He said the median age of his readers was 45, and that he had more readers aged 65 or over than under 25. Blogging looks to be a dying industry.

125

What's Changed?

by Christopher Hayes

August 26, 2008

Having just done some TV, and several radio interviews yesterday, I fear my reporting to opining ratio is perilously close to falling under the 1:1 threshold. (Keep this in mind when watching TV commentators talk on TV with pretenses to inside knowledge and lots of reporting. It's incredibly difficult to be a full-time reporter and a full-time commentator) This was brought home to be yesterday while on Air America with . We were previewing Michelle Obama's speech, and I briefly went on pundit auto-pilot and said the campaign would be trying to "humanize" her. "Humanize!?!?," Kuby yelled. "Do people really not think she's human? What do they think she is?"

Good point.

Angst aside, I just had an interesting discussion with Laura Flanders and a man by the name of Dan Slater who's the Vice Chair for the Colorado Democratic Party. We were talking about to what extent the "change" that everyone's being hearing so much about is in evidence at the convention. And I have to say that my initial impression, having been in Boston in 2004, is how surprisingly un-changed things feel. Howard Dean runs the DNC, we have the 50-state strategy in place and the first black nominee in American history, and yet, for the most part, my impression is that this convention, while perhaps more logistically frustrating, is just about what you'd expect: the parties, the many different organizations and constituencies sponsoring events and attempting to drive home their message and, of course, the insane number of police dressed like something of a dystopic sci-fi movie. It's a useful reminder that the Democratic party is a very old institution, and is therefore subject to a kind of painful inertia. Change comes slowly.

That said, beneath the surface there are signs of a changing party. Obviously there's the presence of the Netroots, camped out mostly in the Big Tent where Google is serving free smoothies and offering back rubs. But though I haven't seen any comprehensive numbers on this (I've got an email into the DNC press shop), there are what feels like a lot of new delegates in attendance as well. I ran into two friends from Texas yesterday, both my age, who founded Texans for Obama before Obama had even announced his candidacy and are now members of the Texas delegation. It's their first convention. Dan Slater said that the 80-90%(!) of the delegates in the Colorado delegation were first-timers, which he said was completely unprecedented and directly due to the party-building of the Dean DNC and the enthusiasm around Obama.

So while there's nothing revolutionary happening in Denver (aside, of course from nominating the first black man for president) the Democratic party really has changed and is changing. Those changes aren't particularly ideological at the moment (the party's base has always been progressive, and to of the funders, lobbyists and career politicos), but regionally and demographically.

126 I'm hoping to get some more demographic information and revisit this topic later.

UPDATE: I agree with Ezra

127

Denver: The Unofficial Guide

by Peter Rothberg

August 24, 2008

While the Democrats, the Obama campaign and the attendant corporate sponsors pull out all the stops for this week's historic Democratic National Convention, there's a shadow structure of progressive organizing taking the form of panels, protests, film festivals and, of course, parties trying to catch the eyes of the world which will be focused on Denver this week.

So take this post as an informal and unavoidably incomplete guide to what's going on outside the convention hall this week in Denver with a particular focus on those events that are available for viewing or listening online and that are open to the public. And do check out my friend Don Hazen's informative look at what's going on at Alternet, the website he's built into one of the most well-read progressive destinations on the internet.

There are a raft of events to recommend today Sunday, August 24, the eve of the DNC.

Kicking off the festivities at the Big Tent (a collaboration between the Denver grassroots group Progress Now, the Alliance for Sustainable Colorado, leading liberal blogging site Daily Kos and corporate sponsor Google) is Live From Main Street Denver which will feature what will undoubtedly be an intense and insightful discussion on The Challenges of Change: Exploring the Conflicts and Opportunities Ahead, hosted by Laura Flanders of Grit TV, along with newly elected Rep. Donna Edwards , Van Jones , David Sirota and former Colorado State Sen. Polly Baca . The entire event will be webcast live today starting at 4:00pm (Rocky Mtn Time).

Taking place, unfortunately, at the same time is The Nation 's own collaboration with the Denver Public Library and Rocky Mountain PBS: From Fannie Lou Hamer to Barack Obama: How the Civil Rights Movement Changed American Politics . This free event will feature the Honorable John Conyers , House Judiciary Chair and the longest-serving African-American Congressman; composer, conductor and musician David Amram and the David Amram Trio; The Nation 's John Nichols and the Colorado Children's Chorale. It will be suitable for all ages and musical and political tastes. The event takes place at the Colorado Convention Center starting at 5:00 today and is free of charge.

While all this is going on, Code Pink is organizing an antiwar march starting at noon leaving from Denver's Union Station and snaking down to Cuernavaca Park.

Meanwhile, a cohort of radicial activists are keeping the focus on Iraq and Afghanistan in a 7:00 rally in Denver's historic African-American community of Five Points, which will be visited by very few of those in town for the DNC. An Evening of Conscience features Ron Kovic , Cindy Sheehan , Green Party presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney , Jeremy Scahill and Sunsara

128 Taylor united in speaking out against the wars on terror. Taking place at Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Theater, 119 Park Avenue West, Denver.

And to top off the evening, the Progressive Democrats of America are staging a Progressive Welcome to Denver. Hosted by Mimi Kennedy , PDA Advisory Board Chair, the event features Rep. Barbara Lee , Co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) and PDA Advisory Board member; The Nation 's John Nichols , , author, activist; Jim Zogby , Arab American Institute and DNC member; Jim Hightower , journalist and PDA Advisory Board member. Music by Dan Reed . Suggested donation: $15.00. From 8:00 to 10:00 PM at the Central Presbyterian Church (1660 Sherman St.) in downtown Denver.

In the liberal media world, Air America is producing a three-hour radio extravaganza on Monday starting at 3:00pm with an impressive group of commentators including Arianna Huffington , Paul Krugman , Jane Meyer , Ted Sorensen , Jonathan Alter and Markos Moulitsas . Everything will be webcast live at airamerica.com , with highlights airing on Air America Radio during the course of convention week.

Also starting Monday is The Nation 's own conversation series.

Nation Conversations August 25th to 28th 11:00am to 12:30 daily

Free of charge

Central Presbyterian Church 1660 Sherman Street, Downtown Denver

Co-sponsored by Progressive Democrats of America

Watch TheNation.com for daily podcasts.

Monday, August 25, 11:00 to 12:30 Moderator, John Nichols -- Rep. Barbara Lee , Rep. John Conyers and Richard Kim on health care, AIDS, and Africa.

Tuesday, August 26, 11:00 to 12:30 Moderator, John Nichols -- Rep. Lynn Woolsey , Rep. Jim McGovern and Tom Hayden on getting out of Iraq.

Wednesday, August 27, 11:00 to 12:30 Moderator, John Nichols -- Rep. Hilda Solis and Bob Moser on immigration reform and economic .

Thursday, August 28, 11:00 to 12:30 Moderator, John Nichols -- Rep. , Rep. Robert Wexler and Victor Navasky on restoring and maintaining our Constitutional rights.

129 Check PDAmerica.org for info on afternoon panels being staged by our friends at PDA during the week of August 25th featuring many of the most prominent progressive legislators currently working along with an illustrious set of activists including Laura Flanders , Tom Hayden , Jeff Cohen , Chris Raab , Lennox Yearwod , Mimi Kennedy , Jim Hightower , Medea Benjamin , Jim Zogby and Majora Carter , among many others.

The most glamorous offsite venue will be Jamie McGurk and Victoria Hooper 's Starz Lounge. The two well-connected Los Angeles-based activists have put together a week-long forum featuring celebrities and Big Thinkers like actresses Charlize Theron , Daryl Hannah , Rosario Dawson and Kerry Washington ; actors Ben Affleck , Josh Brolin , Kal Penn and Hill Harper , Stuart Townsend and musician/filmmaker Will.i.am as well as Tom Hayden , David Brock , Arianna Huffington , John Podesta , Rebecca Traister , Walter Isaacson and Dennis Prager .

One of the most star-studded events at Starz will be a sneak peek at The People Speak , the forthcoming documentary film from historian Howard Zinn and producer Chris Moore on Wednesday at 4:00pm. An all-star panel featuring Affleck , Taye Diggs , Hill Harper and many others will be performing historical readings drawn from Zinn's seminal account of the history of the United States through the eyes of those rarely heard in mainstream histories.

Across both the political and cultural spectrum from the Starz crowd is the unfortunately named Recreate 68 . (I say unfortunate only because the chaos of Chicago '68 that the group's organizers are trying to evoke made more difficult the goal of expeditiously ending the . I applaud the group's emphasis on the core issues affecting most Americans today.) There are free concerts planned by Public Enemy on Tuesday at 2:00pm at Civic Center Park and Rage Against the Machine at 11:00am on Wednesday at the Colorado Coliseum as well as a host of protest activities of various creative types.

130

Even In Denver, Bloggers Keep Independent Streak

by Kevin Friedl

August 27, 2008

NEW MEDIA TYPES ARE EXCITED TO COVER THE CONVENTION, BUT SOME DO IT WITH A CRITICAL EYE

When the Democrats welcomed hundreds of bloggers to Denver, they may not have known what they were in for. Even the most carefully vetted bloggers, it seems, are still capable of biting the hand that feeds them press credentials.

Before the convention had even begun, bloggers invited by the party to cover the event from inside the Pepsi Center were demanding greater access to the floor and overwhelming the DNCC staff with requests. Some bloggers used their initial posts in Denver to complain about security hassles, the credentialing process, and the lack of wireless Internet access, much to the annoyance of Democratic staffers.

Of course, the great majority of the blogs' initial coverage was positive. These are, after all, Democratic partisans. Many see their role as sharing the excitement of the convention experience with audiences back home by posting pictures, video, and regular updates without necessarily editorializing.

"To be honest, I'm a big party supporter," said Jeff Strater , a delegate from Texas and a blogger who said he wouldn't think of including criticism in the online posts of his experiences. "Most of my readers are Democratic Party faithful so, yeah, it wouldn't be cool with them at all."

That's a sentiment unlikely to be heard at the Big Tent, a workspace for bloggers a few blocks outside the convention security perimeter. At an opening press conference on Sunday, Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas talked about the need for the blogosphere to check the power of the traditional press and party establishment.

But even within the ranks of those allowed onto the convention floor, many bloggers fiercely assert their independence. "One thing we're not afraid to do is criticize the party, and I do it all the time," said David Dayen , who writes for the California-focused blog Calitics. That iconoclasm, he says, can rub some members of his delegation the wrong way. "I might get a little look here or there, just because of something I've written or talked about."

Greg Palmer , who is blogging with the Pennsylvania delegation this week, acknowledged the temptation to toe the party line but said he would be ill-serving his readership if he did so. He said, "Keystone Politics [the blog for which he writes] has always aimed to be an independent journalism outlet. What we really want to do is get the public interested in politics and policy- making."

131 To that end, Palmer has posted short interviews with state pols such as Sen. Bob Casey and Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter . "For me, the more access the better," he said.

The local focus is one reason why the DNCC reached out to blogs in the first place -- to reach smaller, more-focused readerships. But a consequence of embedding a blogger with each delegation is that they have multiple agendas in Denver.

Guam's blogger, Michael Lujan Bevacqua , hopes to draw attention to his island territory. "I will absolutely participate in these celebrations, but I will also be present as a cautious reminder ... about Guam and the Pacific," Lujan Bevacqua wrote on his blog.

132

Google Hits Are Plentiful In Denver

by David Hatch

August 26, 2008

DESPITE PARTICIPATING IN BOTH CONVENTIONS, ONLINE GIANT DELIVERS BIGGER SPLASH WITH DEMOCRATS

Search the streets of Denver this week for Google and you'll turn up plenty of hits; the Internet heavyweight is making a big splash here at the Democratic National Convention as part of a wider effort to ratchet up its political profile.

Google is an official sponsor of the convention -- powering the search function on the party's convention Web site, and enabling speakers, delegates and other supporters of the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama , to instantly upload videos to its YouTube Web site.

The company also has set up Google and YouTube booths within the Pepsi Center -- but its involvement doesn't stop there.

In tony LoDo, the Lower Downtown district of Denver stacked with upscale eateries, hotels and shops, Google is co-sponsoring the "Big Tent," a two-story structure that is a gathering place for bloggers and sessions on topics ranging from climate change to evangelical politics.

And the company leaves its calling card Thursday, when Google CEO Eric Schmidt speaks at the tent -- while throwing a shindig that evening with Vanity Fair at the Exdo Event Center near downtown, where invited guests can watch Obama's acceptance speech in style. The facility features what it calls a "New York loft style atmosphere."

Google's presence in Denver is a departure from its decidedly lower profile at the nominating conventions four years ago -- when it played no official role -- or in 2000, only two years after it was founded.

"There are conversations that happen every day that are important to be a part of," company executive Rick Klau said Monday during an interview inside the tent. "The best way for our voice to be heard is to be engaged."

While Google also is an official technology sponsor of next week's Republican National Convention in St. Paul-Minneapolis, the company has a bigger presence at the Democratic conclave and has a reputation for contributing more heavily to Democratic campaigns.

133 According to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, Google-related presidential and congressional donations are breaking Democratic 81 percent of the time this election cycle.

But Klau insisted the Silicon Valley giant is nonpartisan and said Google agreed to participate in the Big Tent after being approached by organizers.

The facility is serving as a spillover lounge for 500 bloggers who could not acquire official DNC press passes or receive credentials -- but want a nicer place to work. For $100, online scribes get lunch, dinner, free beer and wireless Internet connectivity.

Other tent sponsors and hosts include blogging powerhouse Daily Kos, online content provider Digg, Progress Now and Skype. Google was not involved in selecting bloggers, who are mostly liberal but reflect a range of viewpoints.

Reinforcing its edgy, laid-back image, Google is serving limeade, mango-pineapple and strawberry-raspberry smoothies to the public and offering free massages at a "retreat" near the entrance.

At the event being co-hosted with Vanity Fair, hundreds of select guests -- including lawmakers -- will be able to play Nintendo Wii video game consoles that will line a hallway, while living out their heavy metal fantasies in a room devoted to the Rock Band video game that allows participants to act like music stars.

134

Bloggers Set Up Shop In Half-Million-Dollar Tent

by Kevin Friedl

August 26, 2008

AMENITIES OF 8,000-SQUARE-FOOT TEMPORARY OFFICE ILLUSTRATE BLOGOSPHERE'S RAMPANT RISE SINCE 2004

Treated by the traditional press as a novelty during the 2004 conventions, bloggers are big-time now -- and they've got the digs to prove it.

The Big Tent, a two-story, 8,000-square-foot temporary structure located in Denver's LoDo neighborhood, opened its doors Sunday amid a crush of reporters, organizers, volunteers, and, of course, bloggers. The Tent is the home away from home for hundreds of new media types covering the convention.

Organized by the political blog Daily Kos and local nonprofit groups, the tent was originally envisioned as a small space for bloggers to relax in Denver in the comfort of free wireless and fellow travelers.

It has since grown to include more than 40 sponsors, including Google, which is running a "Google Retreat" that dispenses fruit smoothies and free massages, and the news-aggregating website Digg, which is sponsoring a lineup of speakers rivaling any venue in town outside of the Pepsi Center. Scheduled speakers range from Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland to Google CEO Eric Schmidt and oilman T. Boone Pickens . On Monday actress Darryl Hannah made a surprise appearance to watch a panel discussion on the environment.

The Alliance for Sustainable Colorado, one of the Denver nonprofits leading the effort, puts the total cost for the Big Tent at nearly $600,000.

The rise of the blogosphere is impressive on its own, but the Tent's existence is remarkable in a more literal way, too: Last-minute permit problems and a race to finish construction threatened to derail, or at least delay, the project. With less than 48 hours to go before the first guests began arriving, construction workers were still swarming the site, and sawdust lay piled on the carpet.

Not that the inauspicious debut stopped the Tent's boosters from setting their sights high. "We wanted to make sure that we take advantage of all being together to try to elevate the conversation" in Denver, said Bobby Clark , deputy director of ProgressNowAction, another Tent organizer.

135 The task of the netroots, added progressive activist David Sirota , is to make sure that "there's an accountability system, that there's a pressure system on the Democratic Party to adhere to its promises."

But that outsider rhetoric obscures the fact that -- with hundreds of bloggers typing away from the floor of the convention hall and from a half-million-dollar-plus temporary office -- it's harder now to draw the line between insiders and outsiders than it was in 2004.

"It does make you wonder. This blog culture that grew up outside of the traditional media, are we starting to step up to the stage and be with them as equals?" said Georgia Logothetis , a blogger with Daily Kos.

The Democratic Party has given its unofficial blessing to the Big Tent. "The DNCC has been working with us 'as closely as we'll allow' -- those are their words," said Jennifer Bruenjes , another blogger with Daily Kos.

According to Clark, "I don't really see us as outsiders. I see us as people who are taking advantage of online media to make our voices heard."

136

"When Spider Webs Unite, They Can Tie Up A Lion"

by Jennifer Skalka

August 25, 2008

DENVER -- Talk about sustainability. A person could park in The Big Tent -- site of the cush Google Lounge, The Huffington Post's yoga Oasis and rows and rows of bantering bloggers -- and never leave. The Big Tent, housed and hosted by the Alliance For A Sustainable Colorado, among others, provides hungry bloggers (and visitors) with: -- burritos; -- fruit smoothies, free (operative word here) massages and sites to charge laptops and berries (each courtesy of Google); -- on this day, a Daryl Hannah sighting; and -- stimulation for the old (about 100 notables, including an energized T. Boone Pickens , have signed up to talk to the crew here). Knicknacks aside, there is a broader and more urgent mission in this effort, according to Aaron Nelson , project director for the Alliance: to provide bloggers a spot to do their thing and to spread the word about the sustainability movement. "The Big Tent is an opportunity for us to engage new media in our 50 state plan of unifying sustainability movements in every state," Nelson said. For $100, bloggers are provided with eats and free WiFi for the week. Some 500 have signed up to work from the tent. They're also getting a bunch of attention, as mainstream media from TIME, Mother Jones, CQ, Portfolio and more browsed the tent during the first morning of the Democratic convention. Bloggers are typing feverishly as members of the MSM gawk at the scene, like safarigoers in the wild watching a lion devour the last of innards an impala. "This is really weird," blogger Linda Kellen Biegel of Celtic Diva's Blue Oasis said of the scene. "All this media taking pictures of all this media."

137 Over one doorway hangs this Ethiopian proverb: "When spider webs unite, they can tie up a lion."

138

DNC Bloggers Choose Yoga, Not Cheetos

by Liz Wolgemuth

August 27, 2008

Have you ever wondered what career bloggers' working lives are really like?

This morning on MSNBC's Morning Joe, cohost Willie Geist quizzed the "Cheetos eaters, " aka the 400 bloggers covering the Democratic National Convention. Geist asked serious questions like "Have you ever, or do you now, eat Cheetos while blogging?"

Joan McCarter of Daily Kos said "No." She doesn't like getting crumbs on her keyboard. In fact, most of the bloggers answered in the negative.

Geist also asked around and discovered that most bloggers do not play Dungeons and Dragons. Few seemed to be fans of Star Wars collectibles, and Star Trek groupies were rare. In fact, most did not live in their parents' basements. (McCarter's answer: "My mother doesn't have a basement.")

One gentleman blogger—dressed in what seemed to be a kind of cow print—was quite forthcoming: He does indeed have an R2-D2 collectible and sometimes blogs from his mother's basement. In fact, said the gentleman blogger, he blogs everywhere—even the bathroom.

Whatever these bloggers do in their home offices, it doesn't sound so bad there at the convention. They're twittering away in the "Big Tent," an 8,000-square-foot structure with morning yoga sessions and late-afternoon happy hours. (Sounds a lot like a newsroom.)

139

Bloggers Get Unaccustomed Access in Denver

by Eric Pfeiffer

August 27, 2008

Bloggers have had more than a peripheral role at this year’s Democratic National Convention; they actually have better press access than most of their traditional media counterparts.

“I know this will break your heart, but you have better credentials than the mainstream media does,” Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean told a gathering of credentialed bloggers during a barbecue luncheon in a parking lot outside the Pepsi Center on Tuesday.

“I thought you’d get a kick out of that,” he added to cheers.

Approximately 125 individual blogs are credentialed for the DNC, four times as many than in 2004, with many of those blogs bringing multiple staffers to report and provide analysis of the proceedings.

Dean and the progressive blogosphere have had a fruitful relationship going back to 2003, when Dean was a long shot presidential candidate. Even though his candidacy was not ultimately successful, bloggers helped elevate Dean to frontrunner status for several months and a growing number of online political activists poured millions of dollars into his campaign, laying a groundwork for how online activists now have pitched in to propel and fund Barack Obama ’s campaign.

David Goldstein, who writes the “ HorsesAss ” blog from Seattle, Washington said, “In 2004, the state party wouldn’t even return my calls. They’ve shown us a lot of faith and innovation to be letting us do what we’re doing.”

The DNC also conducted a nationwide lottery before the convention where winning bloggers from each state were allowed to join their respective state’s delegation on the convention floor during each day’s main speeches.

Of course, Democrats are not opening up access for progressive bloggers without reason. Dean asked those in attendance to counter what he said are the media’s attempts to create a narrative of tension between supporters of Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama .

“There is no division at this convention,” Dean said. “Part of what this convention is about is making sure people know who Barack Obama is.”

Republican bloggers have been on the scene as well. Those in attendance include John Tabin and Phil Klein from the conservative American Spectator , Liz Mair , who conducts blogger outreach for the Republican National Committee and Christie Jackson , who is part of a trio of College Republicans documenting their summer road trip travels through Republican congressional districts on the “ Where Is the Red? ” Web site.

140 Outside of the convention perimeter, the main draw for bloggers in Denver has been “ The Big Tent ,” sponsored by Daily Kos, ProgressNow.org and the Alliance for Sustainable Colorado. Google helped sponsor the site and plans to provide a similar forum for conservative bloggers in St. Paul next week.

Not all the attention from the traditional media has been welcome. As various reporters showed up to cover the Big Tent proceedings, Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas posted on his site, “Lots of media coming through the Big Tent. The camera crews are taking B-Roll, the random background shots they put into news reports. And the B-Roll is . . . people working on laptops! Exciting! It’s nothing like their own newsrooms where people are . . . working on laptops! So compelling . . . ”

Even with the ascension of political bloggers, the DNC remains a television driven event. In fact, some bloggers say their primary reason for coming to the convention is to “cover the coverage,” and provide their readers with an alternative perspective.

Aaron Silverstein, who writes the Square State blog in Colorado, said, “[Blogging] widens the participation. It lowers the barrier to entry so we don’t have to worry about one person’s bias serving as a gatekeeper.”

Despite the unprecedented access for bloggers, there still is some skepticism about the motives of convention and party officials. At the end of Dean’s luncheon, it was announced that convention security was prohibiting attendees from returning to the convention site. “They’ve got us in the new protestor cage now, right where they want us,” one blogger, who asked to remain anonymous, deadpanned.

141

LAMBRO: Changing of the guard

by Donald Lambro

August 28, 2008

COMMENTARY: DENVER.

Barack Obama had his work cut out for him coming into this week's Democratic National Convention. Democrats said after two years of running for president, Americans still did not know him well. Polls showed he had fallen behind John McCain on key issues. The Republicans had beaten him up pretty bad throughout the month of August.

Pollster John Zogby remarked the other day that "As the Democrats head into their convention, should they be singing the Eurythmics 1985 hit 'Here Comes That Sinking Feeling'?"

"McCain has been the aggressor for the last month, seeing an opportunity to define Obama for voters before Obama could define himself. At times, it has seemed like he has been the only one throwing any punches," Mr. Zogby said in a pre-convention polling analysis. His latest poll showed "more voters trust McCain to deal effectively with economic issues" than Mr. Obama. "He clearly has work to do," he said. Some Democratic party strategists think so, too.

"It's not enough to be glib. It's no longer about charisma and a new face," said veteran party strategist Hank Sheinkopf. Mr. McCain has made the idea of celebrity a poor quality in a serious presidential candidate seeking to be the leader of the Free World. "What Americans want is some specificity about what Barack Obama is going to do about the economy and how to get people working again," Mr. Sheinkopf told me.

Mr. Obama's "to each according to his needs" attack on how many homes the McCains owned was crazy. First, let's face it, they are owned by his wealthy wife Cindy, not by the Arizona senator making $144,000 a year, and their incomes and finances are separate by mutual agreement.

But it was the smallness and irrelevance of the issue that struck Hank Sheinkopf, a veteran of many campaigns. "They are making the wrong argument. Americans don't care about how many houses you own. That's idiotic. It doesn't work," he said. In the end, it showed how desperate the Obama campaign was in the face of his declining polls. He was losing some of his strongest supporters by nearly a dozen points - including Democrats, women, younger voters, and swing Catholics who had dropped by 11 points in the last month.

Offensive politics clearly works and the Republicans are good at it in the long summer run- up to the conventions and the general election. Critics call it "negative campaigning," but the McCain TV ads and Internet ads, of which there were many, were all about Mr. Obama's agenda and the doubts voters have about his tissue-paper-thin experience.

142 Tying Mr. Obama to real issues felt by real people: His opposition to offshore drilling for oil at a time when Americans were being crushed by high gas prices; his support for higher taxes on success and investment; his timid, unsure diplomatic response to the Russian invasion of Georgia, a small vulnerable country in Eastern Europe. These were legitimate issues that loom much larger than the number of homes someone owns.

Then there was the subtext to this convention that isn't getting very much attention: the continuing leftward lurch of the Democrats, moving further and further away from the vital political center.

The left is here in full force, with yet another "take back America" war cry against what remains of centrist Democrats as well as against Mr. McCain and the Republicans. Only in this case, this is the very hard left who have become powerful new forces in the Democratic party.

There was Markos Moulitsas, the take-no-prisoners founder of the DailyKos Web site that is at the core of the party's netroots armies who see themselves "crashing the gate" and taking over the party and government.

They call their headquarters the Big Tent, a stone's throw from the convention hall. They gather daily to cheer Mr. Obama and his campaign to "Take Back America." Liberal-leftist groups like Campaign for America's Future, MoveOn.org, Progress Now and left-wing foot soldiers abound.

This is the changing of the guard. The Clinton/DLC centrist politics of free-trade agreements like the North American Agreement (NAFTA), a strong defense posture, cutting capital-gains taxes to spur investment and jobs are being replaced by higher cap-gains taxes, higher taxes on "excess profits" and slamming the brakes on global trade.

The Democratic Leadership Council, the centrist-leaning group that drew up Bill Clinton's agenda in the 1990s, is now but a shadow of its former self. The Age of Markos and DailyKos is at hand.

But the track record for liberal presidential candidates hasn't been very good. In fact, they've all lost. Hubert Humphrey, George McGovern, Walter Mondale, Michael Dukakis and John Kerry. Since Harry Truman, the only Democrats who have won were two Southern, centrist-seeming candidates - Jimmy Carter of Georgia and Bill Clinton of Arkansas.

Mr. Carter tilted too far to the left and was swept out of office by voters who called themselves "Reagan Democrats." Bill Clinton became the first Democratic president elected to two terms since Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Now comes Mr. Obama out of the Chicago welfare state school of politics, believing he can break the liberal barrier. Hope springs eternal, of course, but his numbers don't look good.

Donald Lambro, chief political correspondent of The Washington Times, is a nationally syndicated columnist.

143

Bloggers get credentials, report from media center

by Karen Goldberg Goff

August 26, 2008

DENVER | A mere four years ago, just three dozen bloggers were allowed access to the Democratic National Convention, relegated to a spare corner with a couple of card tables to call their work space.

Times have changed.

At the 2008 convention here, several hundred bloggers have a two-story media center, parties to attend and their own panel discussions, including "Who's Driving Whom?: The Blogosphere vs. the Mainstream Media."

That's a good question. Never have so many members of the nontraditional media gathered to observe, criticize, upload video, air audio and have their voices heard in cyberspace. And because the mainstream media have gotten into the blogging act within the past four years, the line between a blogger and a reporter can be a fuzzy one.

"Traditional media and new media have blurred boundaries," said Robert Cox, president of the Media Bloggers Association. "The future logical conclusion is that it will be one big thing."

For now, the biggest differences are the perspectives and the story length, said Joseph Graf, an assistant professor of communications at American University who studies blogs and politics. Bloggers who captain their own sites tend to report from a particular perspective, be it liberal, conservative or gender politics. Posts may be much shorter than typical newspaper stories, but they also are more likely to be passionate or inspire readers to take political action.

"Bloggers have an important role," Mr. Graf said. "In some cases, major media have co- opted blogging. But bloggers for mainstream media sites don't bring the attitude of independent bloggers."

Clearly, the corporate and political worlds are recognizing the power of the blogger. The Democratic convention has credentialed 120 bloggers for regular media access at the convention. More than 3,000 applied for 500 spots in the Big Tent, the 8,000-square-foot blogger media center constructed in Denver's lower downtown for the convention. About 200 bloggers will attend next week's Republican National Convention.

The Big Tent is sponsored by sites Google and Digg as well as the liberal blog Daily Kos (www.dailykos.com). Bloggers pay $100 for access to the tent, which features food and beverages, massages and comfy couches.

Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas said the amenities in the Big Tent are part of the collaborative process. That collaborative process, in turn, is a key feature of the new media, in contrast to the competition that fuels traditional journalistic outlets.

144

"It is all about collaboration on causes we care about that is driving politics today," Mr. Moulitsas said. "[Bloggers] are not spectators. We're not being fed information. We are sharing our thoughts on what is happening."

Daily Kos gets millions of visitors a month, making it more popular than many traditional media Web sites. Mr. Moulitsas said he is not trying to be the source for news, but rather trying to spark traditional journalists to do a better job.

Blogs such as Daily Kos and Arianna Huffington's Huffington Post are clearly moneymakers, but the issue has been raised this political season over just what qualifies someone as a blogger. With free software and a digital camera, almost anyone can call himself one.

Convention organizers, as well as the Big Tent people, had to sift through many applications to decide who was eligible for credentials. The convention offered national credentials as well as the chance for one blogger from each state to be embedded with his state's delegation. Among the bloggers here: Blue Jersey (www.bluejersey.com), Crooks and Liars (www.crook sandliars.com), Pam's House Blend (www.pamshouse blend.com) and Culture Kitchen (www.culturekitchen.com).

"This is really about tearing down the walls of the convention so that ordinary people can see inside through the eyes of an ordinary person, and it's also about a two-way campaign. We think listening to voters is more important than talking to them. We want to hear from voters through the bloggers," Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean said when the state credentials were issued.

Still, a backlash ensued as many other bloggers protested being shut out. They claimed the convention's organizers were selecting bloggers they thought could best promote the interests of the party.

"If you ask a member of the mainstream media and you ask a blogger why they are there, you are going to get a different answer," Mr. Cox said. "A lot of bloggers say, 'I am just a person; I have my views.'"

For some excluded bloggers, those views will be coming to their readers from nowhere near the Big Tent, the Pepsi Center (site of the convention) or swanky donor parties. Funded by $5 donations to their blogs, they have descended on Denver for a low-budget, high-tech experience.

"They are saying: 'There are good stories right there on the street,'" Mr. Cox said.

145

Bloggers at Democratic Convention Plant Their Stake

by Gail Russell Chaddock

August 25, 2008

Denver – The “Big Tent” for bloggers at 1536 Wynkoop St. in Denver marks a fault line between new and old media covering the Democratic National Convention.

“The traditional media do a lot of things wrong. We want them to do things correctly. We want them to do their job,” says Markos Moulitsas, founder of the blog Daily Kos, which claims some 1.5 million unique hits a month.

The 8,000-square-foot “tent” is two stories of reinforced canvas packed with tables, chairs, plugs, screens, wiring, bad lighting, and a critical mass of overstuffed, worn- through comfy couches and pillows. Just beyond the white curtain, you can pick up a smoothie or a 10-minute massage at no charge, courtesy of Google, a Big Tent sponsor. Others sponsors include Digg, EcoDrivingUSA, InterfaceFLOR, Meru Networks, Floorz, Moveon.Org, DemWire, Daily Kos, Progress Now, Alliance for a Sustainable Future, Service Employees International Union, Human Rights Campaign, PickensPlan.com, the Sunlight Foundation, and Alliance for a Sustainable Colorado, to name a few. The restaurant chain Chipotle, another sponsor, is helping to provide 600 free lunches and dinners.

Of the 3,000 bloggers who requested credentials for the Big Tent, 500 were granted. Most are liberal or progressive blogs, but Big Tent organizers said they tried for diversity: The conservative Heritage Foundation in Washington was offered two credentials for bloggers, for instance, but took only one.

There’s just one glitch: Most bloggers still can’t get into the Pepsi Center, site of this year’s Democratic National Convention, which is a long 0.4 miles away. (Some blogs say the Big Tent is “a few steps away” from the Pepsi Center.” They’d have to be mighty big steps.)

But there will be some in the Netroots community who will have access to the action on the convention floor. The DNC this year expanded the number of invitees in the online community, including national, political, niche, and video bloggers. This year, 120 got floor credentials, out of some 400 applicants, according to the DNC press office – a sharp increase over those admitted to the 2004 convention. That compares with 15,000 credentialed media overall covering the Denver convention. The officially credentialed bloggers aren’t installed plunk in the middle of the convention floor, as is CNN, or in sky boxes with the TV crews, but they do have

146 cordoned-off areas off the floor with desks, chairs, and plugs (no fluffy couches). But wherever bloggers sit, they are a presence at this convention as never before.

“We’re seeing how incredibly powerful it is to assemble the networks and the globosphere. It literally has its own gravitational pull, there are so many millions of readers,” says Dan Mahoney, who blogs on YourHub.com in Denver. Big Tent organizers say they are also getting calls from politicians and others eager to gain Netroots exposure.

“In the last weeks, it’s been a complete with people trying to get in,” he adds.

Daily Kos’s Mr. Moulitsas says it doesn’t matter in the end whether bloggers sit on the convention floor or away from it.

For bloggers “to get together, it’s affirming,” he says. “We [usually] work in isolation – it’s not like a newsroom where you’re working with your colleagues. We’re in isolation and every once in awhile we get to come together and share in a big experience, and I wouldn’t miss it for the world. It feels part of a broader movement and we need that affirmation.”

147

New media, new questions

by J. Patrick Coolican

August 26, 2008

Two years after bland Vegas powwow, liberal bloggers embraced in ‘Big Tent’

Denver — This is the headquarters of the vast left-wing conspiracy. They’re all here: MoveOn.org , Media Matters and Markos Moulitsas , and if a bomb went off, Bill O’Reilly wouldn’t be disappointed.

These are the online liberals who, a few years ago, were like the boxing trainer who slaps his fighter around a bit, imploring him to fight back.

“The Democratic Party used to be afraid of its own shadow,” said Moulitsas, whose Daily Kos blog receives 1.5 million unique visitors a month, with daily traffic matching the circulation of the Chicago Tribune .

This crowd is ensconced near the Democratic National Convention and brings a certain swagger to the week, a knowing confidence that the online world helped change the party and deliver victory in 2006. The big prize is now so close its members can taste it like the free smoothies and high-end hippie food being passed around in what’s called “The Big Tent,” a sly homage to a famous Ronald Reaganism.

The aping is apt, for these liberals have long used the conservative movement as their model for its ability to set aside differences for the of victory, and for its confident use of attack politics.

Their confidence reflects what many Democrats feel here. For them, it’s a relief the party is now looking forward to this election, rather than dreading it.

A little more than two years ago, the Kos crowd held its own convention in Las Vegas. The mainstream press covered it as if it were an amusing lark, a Dungeons & Dragons convention with laptops.

“This is a long way from the gold lame of the Riv,” said Tom Matzzie, former D.C. director of MoveOn and now a Democratic strategist. He was referring to the Riviera, of course, the down- market casino that hosted the first Yearly Kos.

148 The Big Tent event is sponsored by Google and Digg and feels like an in-the-know place, with appearances by the celebs of liberal politics such as Arianna Huffington and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman .

As for the swagger, Matzzie’s been through too many of these to feel it: “It’s dangerous. Victory is not a certain thing.”

Still, he said, he understands it given the growth of a movement that has risen from nothing to play a key role in fundraising, media pushback and organizing in 2006 — and now, all the way to sponsorship by Google.

Matzzie and Moulitsas, as well as Media Matters’ Karl Frisch, pointed to the profusion of technology and their tribe’s ability to harness it better than their opponents. One key: encouraging participation, rather than passive consumption.

The corporate sponsorship of the event and every other across the city calls up a new feature of the Democratic Party: It is more liberal than at any time in its history and, paradoxically, more corporate, in large part because some of its most active members now are sitting in cubes in corporate office complexes.

John Podesta, once President Clinton’s hard-charging chief of staff, said he marveled at how much the online liberals had changed politics.

“Nothing gets by them,” he said, referring to their rapid response to news events and their attacks on Republicans. Back in his White House days, he noted, there were three TV networks and a few big newspapers to worry about.

(This is often cited as one of several reasons New York Sen. Hillary Clinton didn’t win the nomination: not understanding this new media environment.)

As for the swagger, Podesta said, “I don’t know if I’d say ‘swagger,’ but there’s a strong movement for change, and a ticket to get it done.”

Clark County Commission Chairman Rory Reid, who was on the convention floor and served as chairman of Clinton’s Nevada campaign, agreed: “I think everybody’s excited. People recognize we have a tremendous opportunity to win if we show up.”

David Plouffe, Barack Obama’s campaign manager, spoke confidently, and like a robot, as he briefed the battleground states’ press early in the day.

“We have more ways to get to 270 (electoral votes needed to win),” he said, referring to the 14 battleground states, including Nevada and Colorado, that President Bush won in 2004 but are in play. He offered a glimpse of the tough tone of this convention, saying independent women voters will be reminded again and again that abortion will be illegal if Arizona Sen. John McCain is elected.

The omens for the Democrats were mixed.

“It’s Time for a Change” watches were selling at a brisk pace outside the convention hall.

149 But then there was this: A monster truck driving around downtown with this message: “Our true heroes police, firemen, not NBA.”

150

Bloggers challenge "traditional media" at convention

by Mackenzie Carpenter

August 28, 2008

DENVER - The entrance of "The Big Tent" - a refuge for bloggers a short walk from the Pepsi Center - there's a signup sheet for visitors from newspapers and television and others of their ilk.

"Traditional Media," it says.

It's a subtle putdown, but illustrative of a larger truth: the "new media" - the Internet journalists, the V-loggers, the satellite radio hosts - are on the ascent at this convention.

They're the ones with the swagger, the ones with the coolest parties and the wonkiest panel discussions.

At the "Big Tent," funded in part by Google and progressive blog DailyKos to provide a home - and for $100, unlimited food and beer - for hundreds of uncredentialed bloggers, there have been dozens of workshops and seminars featuring big media names like Paul Krugman, Arianna Huffington, and Ted Sorensen. Then there are the more whimsically themed discussions that nonetheless are all about one thing: bypassing the mainstream media.

"Move over, mainstream media, it's the voter's turn," says the blurb for an event called: "Tapping the Creative Community: The Power of Voter Generated Media."

To be sure, there are television satellite trucks parked in the parking lots around the Pepsi Center, blow-dried anchormen speaking earnestly into cameras and dignified, old hands like Bob Schieffer of CBS roaming about the hall.

But in the media security lines snaking outside the convention venue, the faces are mostly young, the equipment mostly laptops, and the credentials for Web sites you may have never heard of.

Of course, if you're a political junkie living in New York City, you've probably heard of a site called "Room 8" (www.r8ny.com). There, a blogger named "Gatemouth" - known in real life as Clarence Brown - is blogging from Denver as an officially accredited blogger by the Democratic National Committee.

"I was kind of surprised when they picked us because we're one of the few centrist political blogs," said Mr. Brown, who was relaxing in a bloggers' lounge in the basement of the Pepsi Center. "I don't write traditional journalism," he added. "I write opinion, but I mostly try to be factually based.

151 "We create buzz in New York," he added. "We have an impact beyond the daily papers, because we can publish a lot of information that might not be accessible anywhere else. People are always saying, 'Have you read Room 8 or Daily Politics or Politicker today?' "

There are actually 120 officially accredited bloggers this year, from all 50 states. Most of them are progressive-leaning political blogs who not only post their impressions of the goings on but also post videos on YouTube, with the assistance of a large DNC communications team, headed by Chris Hughes, a 24-year old co-founder of Facebook, who now directs online organizing for the Obama campaign.

"I don't know that Barack Obama is giving special treatment to bloggers," said Bill Menezes, director of Media Matters Colorado, a media watchdog group, "but there's been a recognition by the Democratic party that this is a significant new information source for a huge number of people who can't be ignored."

These bloggers aren't mistaken for traditional journalists - who are supposed to be objective - but they don't care.

"I think the whole idea of 'fair and balanced' is [baloney]," said Gerald Weinand, of TurnMaineBlue.com. "Newspaper reporters are frequently just as biased as any advocacy journalist, and at the same time they don't provide the same kind of in-depth information that we can, which is why political blogs are more attractive to consumers of media."

Plus, he added, "if you post something not knowing the details, someone with a Ph.D in that subject might post with the missing data. Interaction is really a key ingredient here."

Nearby, Steve Krakauer, 24, was hunched over his computer blogging about the convention for TVNewser.com "I try to do 7 to 8 posts a day," he said wearily. "I'm not sure blogging is going to be a career for me, but I love politics and I love seeing how all this stuff plays out."

Armed with a laptop, a tiny video camera and an iPhone, he said with a trace of pride in his voice, "I can do video interviews and get them up on the site almost immediately."

Being "new media" at this convention doesn't necessarily mean you have to be young.

The average blogger on DailyKos.com is 47 years old - and upstairs on the 5th floor of the Pepsi Center, a shirtsleeved Larry Kane disproves the cliche of the blogger as a callow youth.

A longtime fixture in Philadelphia's television and radio market, Mr. Kane is 66 years old, "but I'm still in there pitching," he said, fingering his iPhone. Along with colleague Robert Traynham, he's not only providing reports for KYW Radio but also live on-air, online and "on demand" coverage of the convention for Comcast's CN8 Network, along with a video blog on www.CN8.tv.

"I was old media and now I'm new media," he joked, noting that with his video blog, he and Mr. Traynham roam the hallways for behind-the-scenes color. "We do everything from political analysis to humor. It's great."

152 Down the hall, Rebecca Roberts is relishing her role as a host on XM satellite radio's show "POTUS '08," which is broadcasting live gavel-to-gavel coverage of both conventions through the general election.

"We're a niche broadcast," she said, whose listeners are political junkies. "It's a small slice of the market - we're narrowcasters, really - but it's a total luxury to be able to talk to political junkies about the election."

Slowly but surely, the mainstream media has caught on that there's something to this, Mr. Menezes said, noting that among the 15,000 accredited journalists wandering the grounds of the Pepsi Center and Denver's streets this week are bloggers and video journalists - including Post- Gazette photographer Steve Mellon and cartoonist Rob Rogers - who also happen to be members of the old, traditional "mainstream media."

"The Democratic party recognizes there are huge constituencies out there who can be tapped via the Internet," he said. "The mainstream media has recognized these constituencies too."

Perhaps the most telling example of that came earlier this week, when a Rocky Mountain News photographer videotaped a police officer on the streets of Denver pushing an anti-war protester to the ground and posted the video on the newspaper's Web site.

"That was just mind-blowing," Mr. Menezes said. "In the old days, or even a year ago, that video probably would have been shot by a blogger. But that video was by a Rocky Mountain News photographer, which tells you that old media is now trying to become new media too."

"Bloggers are a significant and much-needed complement to the mainstream media, and I think in 2012 you're going to see many, many more of them wandering around the conventions - with credentials."

The Block News Alliance consists of The Blade and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Mackenzie Carpenter is a staff writer for the Post-Gazette.

Correction/clarification (published Sept. 8, 2008) -- A blogger known as "Gatemouth" was incorrectly identified in this story. His correct name is Howard Graubard. Mackenzie Carpenter can be reached at [email protected] or 412-263- 1949.

153

Man in the middle

by Steven T. Jones

September 3, 2008

As the Democratic National Convention was drawing to an explosive close Aug. 28, Barack Obama finally took center stage. In an address to more than 70,000 people, he presented his credentials, his proposals, and his vision. Most in the partisan crowd thought he gave a great speech and left smiling and enthused; some bloggers quickly called it the greatest convention speech ever.

I liked it too — but there were moments when I cringed.

Obama played nicely to the middle, talking about "safe" nuclear energy, tapping natural gas reserves, and ending the war "responsibly." He stayed away from anything that might sound too progressive, while reaching out to Republicans, churchgoers, and conservatives.

He also made a statement that should (and must) shape American politics in the coming years: "All across America something is stirring. What the naysayers don't understand is this isn't about me — it's about you."

Well, if this is really about me and the people I spend time with — those of us in the streets protesting war and the two-, people at Burning Man creating art and community — then it appears that electing Obama is just the beginning of the work we need to do.

As Tom Hayden wrote recently in an essay in , Obama needs to be pushed by people's movements to speed his proposed 16-month Iraq withdrawal timeline and pledge not to leave a small, provocative force of soldiers there indefinitely.

After a 5,000 mile, 10-day trip starting and ending at Black Rock City in the Nevada desert with Denver and the convention in between, I've decided that Obama is a Man in the Middle.

That creature is essential to both Burning Man and the Democratic National Convention, a figure of great significance — but also great insignificance. Because ultimately, both events are about the movements that surround and define the man.

THE BIG TENT

Nominating Obama was a historic moment, but the experience of spending four days at the convention was more like a cross between attending a big party and watching an for

154 the Democratic Party. It was days of speeches followed by drinking — both exclusive affairs requiring credentials and connections for the biggest moments.

This year's convention saw a new constituency come into full bloom. It was called the Big Tent — the literal name for the headquarters of bloggers and progressive activists at the Denver convention, but it also embodied the reality that the vast blogosphere has come of age and now commands the attention of the most powerful elected Democrats.

The tent was in the parking lot of the Alliance Building, where many Denver nonprofits have their offices. It consisted of a simple wood-frame structure two stories high, covered with a tent.

In the tent were free beer, food, massages, smoothies, and Internet access. But there was also the amplified voice of grassroots democracy, something finding an audience not just with millions of citizens on the Internet, but among leaders of the Democratic Party.

New media powerhouses, including Daily Kos, MoveOn, and Digg (a Guardian tenant in San Francisco that sponsors the main stage in the Big Tent) spent the last year working on the Big Tent project. It was a coming together of disparate, ground-level forces on the left into something like a real institution, something with the power to potentially influence the positions and political dialogue of the Democratic Party.

"When we started doing this in 2001, there just wasn't this kind of movement," MoveOn founder Eli Pariser told me as we rode down the Alliance Building elevator together. "The left wing conspiracy is finally vast."

The Big Tent constituency is a step more engaged with mainstream politics than Burning Man's Black Rock City, an outsider movement that sent only a smattering of representatives to the convention, including me and my travel mates from San Francisco, musician Kid Beyond and Democratic Party strategist Donnie Fowler, as well as the Philadelphia Experiment's artistic outreach contingent.

It's an open question whether either constituency, the Big Tent bloggers and activists or the Black Rock City artists and radicals, are influencing country's political dialogue enough to reach the Democratic Party's man in the middle. Obama didn't mention the decommodification of culture or a major reform of American democracy in his big speech, let alone such progressive bedrock issues as ending capital punishment and the war on drugs, downsizing the military, or the redistribution of wealth.

But those without floor passes to the convention represent, if not a movement, at least a large and varied constituency with many shared values and frustrations, and one with a sense that the American Dream is something that has slipped out of its reach, if it ever really existed at all.

These people represent the other America, the one Obama and the Democratic Party paid little heed to during their many convention speeches, which seemed mostly focused on bashing the Republican Party and assuring heartland voters that they're a trustworthy replacement. But that's hardly burning the man.

155 MEDIA, 15,002 STRONG

Kid Beyond and I arrived in Denver around 8 a.m., Aug. 25, after a 16-hour drive from Black Rock City, cruising through Nevada, Utah, , and Colorado, a couple of which Obama will probably need to win in November if he's to take the White House.

We headed into the city just as a gorgeous dawn was breaking, arriving with a few hours to spare before our Democratic National Convention press credential would have been redistributed to other journalists, who reportedly numbered more than 15,000. After arriving at my cousin Gina Brooks' house, we showered, got settled, and jumped on our bikes to pick up our press credentials.

All week, we and others who rented or borrowed the thousands of bicycles made available to visitors used the beautiful and efficient Cherry Creek Bike Trail to get around. It cut through the heart of Denver, passing the convention and performing arts centers, which boasted a great sculpture of a dancing couple, and ran close to the Big Tent in downtown on one side and the convention hall, the Pepsi Center, on the other.

It was a great way to travel and a marked contrast to the long car trip, which felt as if we were firing through tank after tank of gas. Bike travel also proved a smart move — most of the streets around the convention were closed off and patrolled by police in riot gear riding trucks with extended running boards, with military helicopters circling overhead.

The massive Pepsi Center was less than half full a couple hours after the gavel fell to open the convention, but it filled quickly.

The broadcast media had it good, with prime floor space that made it all the more congested for the delegates and others with floor passes. Most journalists were tucked behind the stage or up in the cheap seats, and we couldn't even get free Internet access in the hall. But journalists could get online in the nearby media tents, which also offered free booze and food.

Even though Hillary Clinton announced she was releasing her delegates to vote for Obama, those I spoke to in San Francisco's delegation — Laura Spanjian, Mirian Saez, and Clay Doherty — were still planning to vote for Clinton on that Wednesday, although all said they would enthusiastically support Obama after that.

"It's important for me to respect all the people who voted for her and to honor the historic nature of her candidacy," Spanjian said. "And most of all, to respect her."

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi tried to rally the faithful for the "historic choice between two paths for our country." She belittled the view that John McCain is the most experienced presidential candidate. "John McCain has the experience of being wrong," she said, emphasizing his economic views and his instigation of the "catastrophic" Iraq War.

There were only a smattering of protesters outside the convention center, the most disturbing being anti-abortion activists bearing signs that read, "God hates Obama," "God is your enemy," "The Siege is Here," and one, wielded by a boy who was maybe 12, that read "God hates fags." Family values indeed.

156

American Dreamer: The Big Tent's vast left-wing conspiracy

by Steven T. Jones

August 27, 2008

Steven T. Jones and Kid Beyond are driving to the Democratic National Convention in Denver, stopping by Burning Man on the way there and back, reporting on the intersection of the counterculture and the national political culture.

The Big Tent, which is the central hub for bloggers and progressive activists here in Denver, offers more than just free beer, food, massages, smoothies, and Internet access. It offers up the amplified voice of grassroots democracy, something finding an audience not just with millions of citizens on the Internet, but among Democratic Party leaders.

New media powerhouses including Daily Kos, MoveOn, and Digg (a Guardian tenant in San Francisco which sponsors the main stage in the Big Tent) have spent the last year working on the Big Tent project with progressive groups in Denver, many of whom have offices in the Alliance Building, the parking lot of which houses the Big Tent (a simple wood-framed floor, stairs, and decks above it, covered by a tent).

“This is where we have the people on the ground doing the work on progressive causes,” said Katie Fleming with Colorado Common Cause, one Alliance Building tenant. “It’s been a year in the planning. The idea was having a place for blogs to cover the convention,…It’s a way for us to all come together for the progressive line that we carry.”

But it’s really more than that. It’s a coming together disparate, ground-level forces of the left into something like an real institution, something with the power to potentially influence the positions and political dialogue of the Democratic Party.

“When we started doing this in 2001, there just wasn’t this kind of movement,” MoveOn founder Eli Pariser told me as we rode down the Alliance Building elevator together. “The left wing conspiracy is finally vast.”

I arrived at the Big Tent yesterday afternoon and picked up my press credentials, which one needs to enter the complex. But because I’m with the traditional media and not a registered blogger, I needed an official escort to enter the blogger

157 lounge, where I found Beth Murphy, marketing director of Digg, working on her computer.

“Just as Digg stands for the democratization of information on the Internet, we feel this tent helps in leveling the playing field across the media covering this convention,” Murphy told me.

Digg sponsors the second floor stage and some town hall meetings dubbed Digg Dialogue, in which political leaders field questions generated by the Digg community. Their first guest was to be Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday evening at 6:30.

On Tuesday, Arianna Huffington was among the notable visitors to the Big Tent, speaking from the Digg Stage about the obligations and failing of today’s journalists. “Our highest responsibility is to the truth,” said the founder of the widely read Huffington Post blogger hub. “The truth is not about splitting the difference between one side and the other. Sometimes one side is speaking the truth…The central mission of journalism is the search for truth.”

As for me, it’s time to get out there and search for some more truth.

P.S. While checking my e-mail in the media lounge on the fourth floor of the Alliance Building, I finally heard back from Mayor Gavin Newsom’s people about my week-old request for tickets to his “Unconventional ‘08” party tonight, which is sponsored by PG&E and AT&T.

“Due to the high volume of submissions, we were unable to process your request at this time. If tickets become available we’ll send you an e-mail and SMS text with details,” it said. Unable to process my request? And this is the guy who wants to be governor? I plan to go anyway and see if I can crash the party, backed by my publisher’s promise to bail me out of jail if I get arrested. Wish me luck.

P.P.S. SF-based Code Pink has had a pretty strong presence in town, marching and unfurling banners that read, “Make Out, Not War.” Member Barbara Briggs-Letson from Sebastopol was outside the Big Tent and told me, “We’re here to keep peace on the table and part of the discussion.”

She had just come from outside a high-priced gala featuring Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton at the Sheraton hosted by Emily’s List, a big funder of female candidates. Journalists were barred from covering the event (as they are from many of the parties where the rich court the powerful), “so the press was out with all of us and the police.” I suppose that’s another way for street-level activists to get the media’s ear.

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Blog Shack: At New Media Tent, Words and Beer Flow Freely

by Mary Anne Ostrom and Lisa Vorderbrueggen

August 26, 2008

DENVER - Think of it as Animal House, but with a corporate sponsor. The free beer starts at 1 p.m. The couches are comfy. And the words flow from the Big Tent day and night.

About 500 bloggers, from Berkeley's Daily Kos to Susan "the Neon Nurse" from Lamar, Co. (pop.

9,062), are crammed into what, it turns out, is a not-quite-big- enough tent to meet the crush of bloggers descending on Denver this week.

The two-story, 8,000-square-foot tent, a few blocks from the convention center where traditional media types are holed up, is advertised as new media central for the convention.

With sponsors including Google, YouTube and Digg, the Big Tent also underscores how the blogging community is going mainstream.

On Monday, visiting reporters had to pass through two checkpoints after getting "press" credentials to cover the tent story. PR representatives milled among the bloggers, who scarfed down burrito lunches donated by a local restaurant. Sprint loaned Silicon Valley- based Momocrats broadband cards and AT&T gave them phones.

What was on the tent's flat-screen TVs? CNN.

"It's old media meets new media. It's new media meet new media. I'm just here to meet somebody," laughed Matt Cooper, the former Time Magazine investigative reporter who blogs and writes for Portfolio, a national business magazine.

"I just wonder if bloggers can have as much impact when they are in the same place as the big dogs," he added, referring to bloggers joining mainstream media to cover a political convention.

Yes, argued Markos Moulitsas, founder of Daily Kos. Google's free massages and fruity smoothies (antioxidants before carbohydrate- laden beer), does not mean that bloggers are going soft. But the California-style amenities have generated lots of media coverage.

159 Blogs are only "growing, growing, growing," Moulitsas said. "The bottom line is that people no longer want to be spectators. Technology allows us to essentially become participants." He said that the seed of Sen. John McCain's recent controversial admission to an online reporter that he did not know how many houses he owned came from a blogger's piece about each of the candidates' homes.

Moulitsas made the trip to the 2004 convention alone.

For Denver, he brought 10 of his staff members and paid to help operate the tent. The reason: He feared lesser-known bloggers would not get official convention credentials.

He was right. The Democratic National Convention has credentialed more than 120 blogs, but only a fraction of those who wanted in. The privately funded tent is meant to handle the overflow. Just because they cannot get into the floor has not stopped them from writing about everything from the 1,200 parties and the side political meetings to opining about, well, everything.

But Moulitsas acknowledged that the tent's scope has grown beyond his first visions. "I just asked for free food, free Wi-Fi and free beer," he laughed. A second floor was added to the tent to handle guest speakers ranging from Dan Rather to billionaire T. Boone Pickens to Google CEO Eric Schmidt.

Apple, Yahoo and Microsoft also are in Denver. However, marketing- minded Google is making the biggest splash at both this week's Democratic convention and next week's meeting of Republicans in St. Paul, Minn. Google has teams of people encouraging delegates and bloggers to use an array of Google-owned technologies offered by YouTube, Blogger.com and Picasa, a photo service. Yahoo is hosting public policy forums with Democratic party leaders.

"Four years ago there was no YouTube," said Steve Grove, news and politics director of YouTube. "This time we have delegates uploading videos from the convention center."

He also has won a coveted spot behind the convention podium from Denver, where he intends to catch instant interviews of many of the convention's top draws and immediately post them.

Anyone with a phone could turn themselves into a citizen journalist.

Sheila Dowd, a Momocrat from San Jose, on Monday was moving from event to event, eating up the opportunity, even though she would miss her 5-year-old's first day of kindergarten.

"We're tearing it up, using cool tools," she reported, including and blogging software coveritlive.com.

While the tent has become a handy marketing tool for hot-tech companies, it also is providing an outlet for diverse blogging voices.

160 Jill Stanek is a conservative, pro-life blogger from Chicago. The Democratic convention organizers had turned down her credential request, but "I'm being treated cordially here," she said.

Craig Newmark, founder of craigslist, is blogging from the Big Tent, too.

"I've been a couch , but this election is just too darned important," he said. "But this is how the media is changing. It gives guys like me a place and an opportunity to raise our voices."

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From bloggers to breweries

by Mary Anne Ostrom and Lisa Vorderbrueggen

August 25, 2008

Hundreds of Bay Area residents are invading Denver this week for the Democratic National Convention. Of course, there's the official duty of nominating Barack Obama as the party's presidential candidate. But there's also a lot of unofficial business going on. From bloggers to beer, from mediation to massages, the Bay Area's imprint is everywhere.

HIP HOPS: Half Moon Bay Brewery is moving into Coors country, serving up specially brewed election year suds called Obama Ale. But even beer can't avoid politics. There's a McCain Ale, too. The brewery is selling both beers online and, after the election, it will announce which label sells more.

Both the Obama andMcCain brands are the same Pilsner-style ale. A political statement aimed at implying that McCain and Obama are Tweedledee and Tweedledum?

Heck no, said the brewery's marketing man, who, for the record, is a registered independent.

CIRCUS CITY: In a clever hijacking of the GOP's claim to the title the Big Tent party, Mountain View-based Google and Berkeley's Daily Kos have set up the real thing: a 9,000-square-foot-tent for 500 bloggers from across the country. It's a sign of the future. The official convention organizers awarded press credentials to about 120 blogs.

But hundreds of other bloggers who couldn't even get into the tent are begging tent pass-holders to sell them coveted access. Maybe this is why: Google is offering special treats: free massages, smoothies and a nightly party.

If that's not enough, the Big Tent has its own blog about bloggers blogging: www.bigtentdenver.org

GREEN PARTY: In a game of green-upmanship, everyone wants to be the environment's closest friend. That brings San Carlos-based Tesla Motors to Denver to show off its electric sports car to Democratic delegates and VIPs. Tesla already has an order from GOP Gov. . So far Democratic delegates from Indiana and are impressed, though not by the $100,000 price tag. No word on what ethanol-loving Iowans say about Tesla's car.

162 GOT PINK? Bay Area anti-war icon and CodePink founder Medea Benjamin and her pink-clad colleagues hope to color Denver like summer flowers this week. Some CodePinksters are delegates and others rode a Peace Train into town for anti-war protests. They'll gather inside and outside dozens of convention-related events all week.

The delegates can't miss Benjamin. On Sunday, she cycled through town on a green and pink bicycle.

CHANNELING BERKELEY? Stressed-out Bay Area delegates can stretch for Obama at the Yoga Health Festival at the city's Flower Garden Park. The sponsor is Denver-based Dialog:City, an "arts and cultural event that catalyzes civic discourse by inviting internationally renowned artists and designers to create participatory, interactive and dialogical site-specific works." Other offerings include political karaoke, digital projections of veteran stories from a Humvee and a technology hip- hop opera on the climate impact on Antarctica.

Seems that many Denverites were already in a Bay Area state of mind before the Northern Californians arrived.

Contact Mary Anne Ostrom at [email protected] or (415) 477-3794.

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DNC bloggers quadruple in size from Boston convention to Denver

by Ben McKee

August 27, 2008

DENVER - Walk along Wynkoop Street between 15th and 16th and you can't miss one of downtown's biggest hubs. They call it "The Big Tent."

Inside, 500 bloggers from around the country are furiously typing, videotaping and webcasting new information. Just nine years ago, the word "blog" was far from a mainstream word. These days, it's a lifestyle, a hobby, and for some, a full-time profession.

"It's a lot of citizen journalism, which means everyone participates," said Brian Debine, who works with New Media Strategies out of Washington D.C.

During the DNC, Debine is working to integrate partisan and non-partisan blogs with C-SPAN's Web site.

"We've gotten to the point where we've opened up the mainstream media to anybody," said Debine. "It doesn't matter where they're from, or the size of the blog. They can be part of a news feed that goes out to the entire country."

"Eight years ago, there was really an information vacuum," said Gabriel Demonbynes, a blogger for Economists for Obama. The blog provides critiques on articles about economics in mainstream media.

"I think more information is always a good thing," said Demonbynes. "I think journalists are much more on their toes these days. Nowadays, if you want to find more information on a candidate's tax proposal, you can find that information from hundreds of resources through Google rather than just a few mainstream providers."

As far as the future of blogging is concerned, many bloggers believe its influence on presidential and Congressional politics will only become greater in subsequent election cycles.

"It's evolving every week," said Debine. "When you open up journalism to the marketplace, it fosters new innovation . Not four years down the road, but in just a few months. We're paving the way in Denver, and the same is true for next week. More access is the right direction."

164 real vail .com

Obama, DNC instill varying measures of hope, inspiration and trepidation

by David O. Williams

August 29, 2008

August 29, 2008 — Barack Obama’s nomination acceptance speech Thursday at Mile High Stadium capped an exhausting, emotional and thought-provoking week for me at the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

The 42-minute laundry list of liberal agenda items was comprehensive and inspiring, and while it’s hard to be too specific given the timeframe, Obama touched on a number of issues he could have safely steered away from: gun control, gay rights, immigration reform.

The setting, the weather, the diverse and energized crowd of 80,000 well-intentioned Dems all instilled in me an inevitable sense of hope for the country and world my three sons will inherit.

Delivered on the 45th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s “I have a dream” speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, Obama’s acceptance in Denver will not go down as the greatest piece of oratory ever written, but it accomplished every goal set by the candidate and his party.

It was a momentous historical occasion in my own backyard, and I left with the feeling that if Obama wins in November and delivers on a fraction of his agenda, historians will look back on Denver as the birthplace of the “New Green Deal” and the restoration of America’s power and promise around the globe.

If he isn’t elected or he is but his agenda becomes mired in legislative bickering and is thwarted by special interests every step of the way over the next four years, then history will look back at Denver as the place where a great opportunity was squandered.

My hope and belief, while still basking in the soft afterglow of an emotional and awe-inspiring day at Mile High, is that he will beat John McCain in November and will then be able to effect the meaningful change so clearly outlined in Denver. It’s hard not to come away with that hope and expectation after a week of listening to some of the most brilliant minds in America genuinely trying to articulate a bold and innovative course of action.

But I also left Denver wanting more, much more. I wanted more specific plans for dealing with the water shortage in the West, for better managing public lands to prevent wildfires but also create healthier national forests, for staving off the growing pressure for domestic oil and natural gas drilling and mitigating the impacts of the extractive industries on public lands. I also wanted a better sense of how the Dems will reform our outdated immigration policies to allow continued economic growth in the mountains but also better cope with the social impacts.

I left feeling these things had been largely glossed over in an endless stream of political platitudes. So much theater; so little reality-based dialogue.

165 I also came away from Denver with a mounting feeling of unease. It began with the arrest of a group of alleged wannabe assassins with aspirations of taking Obama out at Thursday’s speech. Then Wednesday I spent the day in the trenches of various street protests that vividly illustrated for me the huge gulf between the idealists and crazies and painted a picture of rising .

That night while I was in the Big Tent set aside for bloggers, the police detonated a suspicious package nearby at Union Station, causing me and about 400 other new journalists to jump out of our collective skins. Then my RealVail partner Tom Boyd, who was putting me up for the week at his Denver home, called to say I urgently needed to get in touch the Denver police and tell them I was the owner of my car, which I’d left parked in front of his house.

Turns out his neighbor two houses down had been shot to death and the gunman was still on the loose and they needed to eliminate my car as a suspect vehicle. That night and the following morning were filled with nerve-wracking moments as police and news crews converged on the block.

At Thursday’s incredible day at Mile High I was overly jumping, nervously twitching every time fireworks went off or the crowd stomped their feet and made the stadium rumble. All of this underscored for me just how violent and polarized our country has become.

It’s one of the reasons I live in the mountains, and I realize that’s a bit of a copout and that social problems, crime and violence will make their way into our growing rural communities as well if we’re not vigilant. But that mixture of hope, inspiration and trepidation gave me a curious feeling in the pit of my stomach all week.

I know that as another great Democrat once said, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself” (my trip to Washington earlier this month and visit to the FDR memorial was in many ways more inspiring than Denver and the DNC), but it’s tough to live by that when there are so many threats to a peaceful Democratic society in today’s crazed world.

I can only admire and be inspired by Obama’s willingness to take on those challenges at great personal risk and with the possibility of only very limited political rewards. Denver has set him up to be our society’s greatest hero or greatest goat. Only time will tell.

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Drilling boom effects shown to thousands at DNC

by Phillip Yates

August 28, 2008

GLENWOOD SPRINGS, Colorado — Thousands of people at the Democratic National Convention are getting an up-close look at Denver as well as the Rocky Mountain West.

The National Wildlife Federation and the Colorado and Wyoming Wildlife Federations want to give those convention-goers a closer look at how energy development — one of the most important issues in this year’s general election — is affecting northwest Colorado and Wyoming.

The wildlife organizations joined with The Story Group, a Boulder-based multimedia journalism group, to produce three videos that they say show the impacts of the drilling boom in northwest Colorado and Wyoming “through the voices of Westerners who live and work on the land.”

One of those videos, called “Voices from the West: Living with the Oil and Gas Boom,” was shown to hundreds of people at the Big Tent — which is a large gathering of bloggers at the DNC convention, said Steve Torbit, the NWF’s regional executive director.

The video’s display came on Wednesday during a panel about energy development in the , he said.

The short video focuses on the lives of ranchers and others in northwest Colorado and Wyoming and on how they’ve dealt with the effects of large-scale natural gas development around them. Torbit said the people in the videos are “real Western people” and not “San Francisco liberals.”

“We are not against (natural gas development), but we have to do it a better way,” he said.

Two other videos produced by The Story Group focus on the gas-rich Piceance Basin, which is northwest Colorado, and the area near Pinedale, Wyoming, another area undergoing rapid natural gas development.

Torbit said the videos are important because so many people across the nation are focused on issues surrounding energy development, but that many don’t have an idea about what people in natural gas-producing areas in Colorado and Wyoming are going though.

“There are real lives and real lifestyle consequences to what is going on,” he said.

167

Drilling in Garfield County and northwest Colorado has become an integral part of the area’s economy, along with tourism, hunting and fishing.

“Natural gas development and other natural resource industries are playing an increasingly important role in the northwest Colorado economy,” according to a recent study commissioned by Associated Governments of Northwest Colorado (AGNC) that focused on Garfield, Mesa, Rio Blanco and Moffat counties.

In June, more than 2,000 industry workers, ranchers, mineral owners and others turned out for a public hearing in Grand Junction about proposed oil and gas rules.

Many of them warned about the possible economic impacts the rules could have on communities of the Western Slope.

Currently, there are about 7,500 operating wells in northwest Colorado, and it is estimated that another 50,000 additional wells may be drilled in the next 30 years, according to the study.

The videos produced by The Story Group are available at www.thestorygroup.org/NWF.html .

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DNC: Bloggers unite in ‘Big Tent’

by David Young

August 26, 2008

Tucked a few blocks away from the Pepsi Center where hordes of mainstream media are reporting on the Democratic National Convention sits a haven for bloggers representing what some are calling the “new media.”

The tent at the corner of Wynkoop and 16th Street is home to 500 bloggers from more than 40 states during the DNC.

Inside the large tent there are three levels. The main level is devoted to members of the new media like Ali Savine, national program director for the center for independent media.

Savine’s organization is one of the sponsors of the Big Tent and also has 10 to 15 reporters covering the DNC.

Savine believes the rise of the bloggers at the convention stems from frustration with the conventional media not asking the hard questions, especially in light of the Iraq war.

“(Bloggers) are willing to speak the truth to power,” Savine said. “I think they also see themselves as on the outside looking in, willing to throw stones and not afraid to challenge the status quo.”

More than 5,000 bloggers applied to gain access to the Big Tent. Of the 500 that did receive credentials many are literally looking in from the outside. Many don’t have access to the Pepsi Center where much of the “action” happens at the DNC.

One of the exceptions is Dave Maass, a reporter for the Santa Fe Reporter, a weekly paper and a blogger for www.swingstateofmind.com .

Maass wears the hats of both a traditional journalist, with DNC credentials and access to the Pepsi Center, and a new media blogger with Big Tent credentials.

However Maass admits the line between new and conventional media is blurring more and more with new technology.

“No one knows exactly where this is going or what’s going to work,” said Maass of the roomful of bloggers. “We try different things and have different levels of success.”

169 One the primary differences between the bloggers and traditional journalists according to Savine is the style of writing.

“They tell a story the way you would tell a friend rather than AP style,” Savine said. “The new media admits everyone has bias and has a voice in their writing.”

Alliance for Sustainable Colorado Project director Aaron Nelson whose organization helped sponsor the tent, said the center was designed for new media who don’t have access to a lot of the main events.

In an effort to bring some of the discussion to them Nelson helped establish the Digg stage that features such speakers as Dan Rather, who addressed bloggers on Tuesday.

Nelson loves to see the interaction between journalists and new media bloggers that the tent is creating.

“With media covering media it creates some fantastic dialog,” Nelson said. “It is another way to engage the public in the communication process.”

170

Vt Delegates: rallying, partying and blogging

August 28, 2008

(Host) Vermont delegates to the Democratic National Convention aren't just rallying and partying this week.

Some are busy blogging - giving their take on the party - and the media covering it.

Todd Zwillich met a few bloggers on the convention floor.

(Zwillich) Madeleine Kunin was governor of Vermont from 1985 until 1991. Today, she's a Vermont delegate to the Democratic National Convention. That's by day. By night back in her hotel room, Kunin has been posting missives for the Huffington Post.

It's a left-leaning political forum that attracts millions of visitors. Standing on the convention floor this week she, like many convention delegates, lamented Hillary Clinton's loss to Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination.

(Kunin) "And last night I wrote about Hillary Clinton's speech, of course, and how moving it was, and how strong she was in her support for Barack Obama."

(Zwillich) Hundreds of bloggers showed up and were granted credentials at the convention. The vast majority of new media writers are not experienced politicians like Kunin.

(Kunin) "As an older delegate, you might think I'd hold back on entering that blogosphere. But that's how you communicate. And I'm happy to join in the new journalistic world of today. Now I still like a newspaper and I still watch the evening news."

(Zwillich) But many bloggers say the very reason they work the convention is because newspapers and television miss the real stories. Phillip Barruth is delegate and he's been blogging for The Burlington .

(Barruth) "The overarching theme has been the national media's almost rabid desire to read the events of the conventions to fit into preexisting narratives or story lines. One is this is a historic event so they're out looking for celebrations of the 88th anniversary of the women's right to vote; they're making a lot of the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King's I have a Dream

171 speech. But they're also very interested in playing up the rift between the Clinton camp and the Obama camp."

(Zwillich) Barruth says his mission has been to tell stories he thinks the traditional media are blind to.

(Barruth) "Last night I was sitting in our delegation. Richard Dreyfus dropped into the seat behind me and began to try to convince our entire delegation to launch a voice vote for of the president. He was going around under the radar trying to build support for a mass protest on the floor to stop the convention until that issue was dealt with. Now as far as I know nobody covered that story. But there were about 8 to 10 photographers walking around watching him do that."

(Zwillich) Not every Vermont blogger spent hours on the convention floor. John Odum posts for Green Mountain Daily. He's been spending most of his time in what's called the Big Tent. That's where everyone from left-leaning bloggers from Moveon.org and Daily Kos rub elbows with the likes of Texas oil man T Boone Pickens.

Some bloggers cover politics from a conservative viewpoint too. And this isn't the first convention that bloggers have covered. But Odum calls this year's Democratic gathering a milestone.

(Odum) "The new media is becoming one of the stories here. As a lot of the traditional media look around and some of the narrative that have been pushed like the tension between the Hillary crowd have really kind of fizzled. They just weren't there. People are looking for what else is going on and more and more have found their way down to the big tent.''

(Zwillich) If Odum and the other left-leaning Vermont bloggers have uncovered stories the big media missed in Denver, it still seems like only part of the story. None of the three is planning to travel to St. Paul, Minnesota, next week to cover the Republicans at their convention. For Capitol News Connection in Denver, I'm Todd Zwillich for VPR News.

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Separate and unequal

by Joshua Lynsen

August 28, 2008

Unprecedented access. Comfortable accommodations. Rising reputations.

If you read the Associated Press article published Wednesday about bloggers at the Democratic National Convention, you might have thought the citizen journalists were well treated and respected in Denver. But after seeing their accommodations, I think otherwise.

Yes, bloggers have a dedicated lounge at the Pepsi Center, the location of many of this convention’s biggest events. But the room cannot accommodate all 120 credentialed bloggers. As a result, many of these credentialed writers have been relegated to working alongside a host of un-credentialed rookies in “The Big Tent.”

Described enticingly in the Associated Press article as sporting leather couches and a bar serving microbrew beer, the tent is actually a crowded, hot and noisy environment that’s hardly conducive to doing work. Occupants become sweaty after just a few minutes and it’s difficult to find a place to sit.

Internet connections are spotty. Blaring announcements come every few minutes. And access to the convention’s biggest arenas — the Pepsi Center and Colorado Convention Center — is problematic. It’s a grueling walk in either direction.

The bloggers I talked to there voiced several complaints, but said they’re taking a grin-and-bear-it approach, hoping the convention’s organizers learn from the experience and prepare better accommodations for the next gathering in 2012.

173 Perhaps then bloggers will have access to facilities akin to the specialty media lounge that was open to the Blade. The room, sponsored by Microsoft and hidden deep inside the Colorado Convention Center, gave tired journalists a place to relax and enjoy a free buffet breakfast or boxed lunch. It came equipped with ample seating, an Xbox 360 playing “Rock Band,” and uninterrupted Internet access.

The differences between the two facilities are enormous. If the blogger tent is a garage, the specialty media lounge is a parlor. It’s comfortable, friendly and conducive to getting work done. It is everything the blogger tent is not.

I felt guilty returning there after seeing what some people I know and respect were enduring less than one mile away. I found myself wishing there was some way I could sneak them inside my refuge, if only so they might momentarily escape the heat and grab a bite to eat.

Lacking that power, though, I instead resolved to write this piece. I thought it no small irony that amidst conversations about equality, my new media brethren were relegated to second-class status. Such treatment was more than unfair. It was crass.

I know the Democratic Party can do better for media catering to some of its most ardent supporters. So I call on convention organizers to prove it in 2012. Prove that you respect bloggers. Prove that you value their presence. Prove that this big tent party can do better than “The Big Tent.”

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Big Tent offers big boost for bloggers and democracy

by Marisa Helms

August 27, 2008

DENVER—While the mainstream press are jockeying for face time with Democratic heavy-hitters in the Pepsi Center, a few blocks away a big tent is buzzing with bloggers who are writing about ... well, whatever the hell they want.

It's called, appropriately, the Big Tent . It's a two-story, 8,000-square-foot ... tent. Upstairs, sponsors are serving up panel discussions with politicians, economists and progressives on such topics as voting rights, the environment and health care.

Downstairs, it's free smoothies and back massages and 500 bloggers who are working their word-wares from deep, cushy couches and coffee tables.

Of course, there are lots of flat-screen TVs streaming the mainstream media's doings from down the street at the Pepsi Center.

The Big Tent is completely wireless, unlike the Pepsi Center, which, surprisingly, is not wireless (Convention officials cite security concerns for that).

Big Tent rivals big explosion in bloggers The Big Tent operation is no small thing for bloggers; in fact, it's essential for Big Tent co-sponsor Daily Kos . Susan Gardner, its executive editor, says the Big Tent blog fest is the realization of a dream for Daily Kos founder, Markos Moulitsas Zúniga , who was the sole blogger covering the 2004 political conventions.

"He got nosebleed seats," says Gardner. "We were the stepchildren of the media, and no wireless access. And for us that's a killer. We need to be very on top of things, blogging quickly, updating quickly. When (Markos) left, he said, 'If I ever get a chance, I'm going to create something geared toward our medium.' "

175 And, voila! Up go the poles for the Big Tent.

The Daily Kos is joined by such other Big Tent sponsors as Alliance for Sustainable Colorado, a coalition of nonprofits, and Progress Now, an online activist community in Colorado. Other partners include Google and YouTube.

Gardner says bloggers are changing the way voters can participate in conventions and politics in general.

"Most blogs, because they are structured to allow commentary from readers, are more of a conversation than a top-down messaging organ," says Gardner. "We have ongoing dialogues about what policy should be, what elections are like. We're ordinary people extraordinarily interested in politics."

Tent big enough to encompass all political persuasions Gardner says bloggers in the Big Tent are from every political persuasion, though there's a preponderance of the left-leaning kind.

"If anybody is interested in democracy and wants to get in on the conversation, blogs are a really easy way to start," says Gardner. "We would love it if everyone in the country got so excited about democracy — whether liberals or conservatives — they'd get involved in the conversations that are going on."

Here's a conversation starter: Daryl Hannah. The Hollywood actress of "Kill Bill" and "Steel Magnolias" fame, has got her own video blog , and she's blogging from the Big Tent for the duration. She says her blog is "all about inspiring sustainable solutions and positive stuff."

"It's a great way to share information," says Hannah. "When people have information, they make wise decisions. If there was a place where I could get the kind of information that I'm putting out on my website, I wouldn't have had to create it. Every time I come across something, I go, 'What! I wish someone would have told me that!' And I put it on my website, you know?"

Don't think the Big Tent is isolated from more mainstream politicians and high-profile opinion leaders. On the first day of the convention, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, ambled in, and Arianna Huffington's got her very own comfy lounge upstairs, for blogging, and whatever...

176

Marisa Helms is a former award-winning metro-area reporter for Minnesota Public Radio.

177

The Underground World Of DNC Bloggers

by Heather Skold

August 27, 2008

DENVER - What you see and hear on TV and read in the papers give you a bird's eye view of the going's on at the Democratic National Convention.

But there is another, distinct in its own right: the underground world of the Blogger.

From the outside, the "Big Tent" of Bloggers doesn't look so big.

Inside, though, it's a sea of constant... tapping.

500 Bloggers call the "Big Tent" home for the week of the DNC, boasting their opines.

"We're really trying to pioneer a new kind of journalism that's online, that's instant, that's multi-media, but that isn't stuffy," says David Alire Garcia, publisher of the New Mexico Independent .

Each Blogger has their own way of blurring the line between reporting, commentating, and analyzing.

"I'm going after quick reactions to some of the speakers," says Alire Garcia.

Bill Scher, with Campaign for America's Future , focuses on what's happening outside the Pepsi Center.

"There's ten panels of global warming going on here. There's a $40-million campaign guaranteeing healthcare for all," he says, his screen's glow reflecting on his face.

While most here don't earn a dime dishing out their thoughts - most are amateurs, Blogging for hobby - Bill does. He even adds video to the mix.

Comrades more than competitors, there is an underlying theme here: the more eyes, the better.

178 "I hope everybody's reading my Blog, particularly my parents," with Air America jokes. "Because that would indicate they love me."

A roar of laughter erupts from his fellow Bloggers.

Love, Hate - it's all a matter of opinion that these few yet mighty are thriving on.

"To be able to talk about issues and write them and inform the public in a compelling way and get paid to do it, I can't complain," says Scher.

To access the Democratic National Convention Blogs, click here .

179

Political bloggers getting royal treatment at DNC

August 26, 2008

DENVER, Colorado, August 26, 2008 (NBC) – It’s a workspace built inside a tent, but you can hardly say those inside are roughing it.

Inside: smoothies, chair massage, WI-FI access, burritos and beer; all the things bloggers say they need to work.

“We need laptops and electricity obviously, but we also need beer,” said blogger Markos Moulistas.

Meet the new generation of those covering the political convention and check out their office. The Big Tent, sponsored in part by Google and Diggis, is a short walk from the Pepsi Center where most of the Democratic National Convention events are held.

It’s and 8,000 square foot, two-story structure. And for a $100 entrance fee, it’s an office away from the office for political bloggers.

“We have 500 credentialed bloggers representing over 40 states, several different countries, both sides of the aisle,” said Aaron Nelson with the Alliance for Sustainable Colorado.

That includes some celebrities like Darryl Hannah.

Organizers decided to create this filing center for bloggers after being crammed into convention centers in 2004. It’s a much needed resource for bloggers – a group that for the most part doesn't make much money for their work.

Like so many, Phillip Anderson of the albanyproject.com, couldn’t even afford to come to Denver.

“The financial challenge was stringing together enough money to do it,” Anderson said.

He turned to his readers for donations and was able to make the trip.

“We raised about 15 hundred dollars, which is actually the reason I'm able to attend,” he said.

Anderson’s readers helped him get to Denver and the Big Tent is helping him and so many others get to work.

180

It's not Google

by John Rebchook

August 26, 2008

It's not the Google Center.

The national media keeps reporting that the heart of the high-tech media - known as the Big Tent - is a Google site, said John Powers.

But the gathering place for 500 bloggers and other high-techers that do things like post their video interviews on YouTube, is not coming live from the Google Center. Ken Salazar, a U.S. Senator representing Colorado, and CBS news personality Katie Couric, were among the people to meet the bloggers today at the Big Tent.

"The Big Tent was put up by the Alliance for Sustainable Colorado," said Powers. He should know. Powers is the the founder of the non-profit alliance. The Big Tent sits on the parking lot next to its headquarters at 1536 Wynkoop St., just down the street from the Tattered Cover Bookstore. "Google is just one of our sponsors. I'd like you to set the record straight."

Consider it straightened.

181

'Daily Kos' blogger pans print, TV media

by Jeff Smith

August 25, 2008

'We got tired of being spectators,' Kos founder says

Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas smiled and exclaimed "yeah" when a reporter noted Sunday that his progressive Web site has more readers than most American newspapers.

Make that 40 million page views a month, he said, and 1.2 million to 1.5 million unique visitors a month.

Moulitsas gave a reason why political blogs are changing the country's landscape as he helped kick off the festivities at The Big Tent, which is hosting bloggers and panel discussions during the Democratic National Convention.

"We're not spectators," Moulitsas said. "The reason we exist as a movement and as a medium is that we got tired of being spectators. We got tired of watching and being fed information."

He also had some critical things to say about traditional media and how it's doing its job: wrong, in his opinion.

"We want reporters to do their things correctly," he said.

By that, he suggested he means digging for and reporting the truth.

Moulitsas, 36, is the son of a Salvadoran mother and Greek father. His family fled the civil war in El Salvador, and settled in the Chicago area in the early 1980s.

According to the biography on his Web site, he initially was a Republican but "abandoned the GOP" soon after enlisting in the U.S. Army in the 1980s.

He has a law degree from and a background in philosophy, journalism and political science. He dabbled in the dot-com industry in San Francisco and once worked for a Web development company before starting Daily Kos in 2002.

"I'm trained as a reporter," he said Sunday, but quipped, "I don't want to do your job. I'm too lazy to do your job."

182 Instead, he clearly enjoys being regarded as one of the most influential voices on the Web.

Moulitsas helped create The Big Tent, but gave credit to others for making it a much bigger deal than he had envisioned.

Hosts include the nonprofit Alliance for Sustainable Colorado and Progress Now, with Google, Digg, EcoDrivingUSA and Meru Networks the lead sponsors.

The 8,000-square-foot, two-story temporary facility at 15th and Wynkoop streets is expected to host nearly 500 bloggers, including conservative ones, during the convention as well as town hall-type panels on everything from energy to health care to the economy.

"We're providing access to people who don't always get it," said Bobby Clark, deputy director of ProgressNow.org in Denver.

"This right here is a culmination," said Moulitsas, who noted that bloggers generally work in isolation.

"What I'm interested in personally is the ability to sit together with my fellow bloggers and collaborate as we discuss what's happening at the convention and start filling (in) the story lines. That will drive us to November."

The Big Tent

1536 Wynkoop St.

MONDAY PANEL DISCUSSIONS

* "Faith in Public Life," 9-9:55 a.m.

* "Reducing (Energy) Demand: Green for All," 10-10:55 a.m.

* "Left Behind: What Katrina and a Stolen Election Taught Us About Race and American Politics," 11-11:55 a.m.

* "Now or Never: Climate Solutions," 12:20-12:55 p.m.

* "Progressives vs. Conservatives," 5-5:50 p.m.

183

Big Tent To Host Blogger Circus

by Thomas Hendrick

August 21, 2008

DENVER -- The DNCC let in more than 100 bloggers into the Pepsi Center to help cover the Democratic National Convention. But a few blocks away 500 bloggers from 40 states will have their own party with beer and .

Thursday, the Alliance for Sustainable Colorado gave local reporters a chance to see the inside of the still-under-construction Big Tent.

More like a white two-story temporary building, the 5,000-square-foot Big Tent will be the base of operations for many bloggers and a list of speakers that could give convention primetime organizers a run for their money.

*Link: Full Schedule of Events

Organizers say construction will be complete by Sunday with an all-day list of speakers including energy tycoon T. Boone Pickens, Bobby Kennedy Jr., New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas and Huffington Post founder and editor-in-chief Arianna Huffington, to speak through convention week.

"The idea was to have a tent with pizza, beer and WiFi for bloggers," said Jen Bruenjes, a contributing editor for the Web site Daily Kos.

Bruenjes said the tent will be a place for bloggers who didn't get credentialed for the DNC to gather and write.

The tent will be in place for "new media journalists, bloggers, reporters and non-profit leaders covering the Democratic National Convention," said Aaron Nelson, project director for Alliance for Sustainable Colorado.

The Big Tent is a joint project with the Alliance for Sustainable Colorado, DailyKos and ProgressNow, Nelson said.

The public will be able to watch the events online at Ustream.tv, said Nelson.

184 Tech-savvy Denverites looking for some free refreshment will also be able to visit the Big Tent Google Retreat for a free smoothie (in a biodegradable cup -- part of the Alliances environmental sustainability goals) and YouTube kiosks to upload their own viral videos.

The Big Tent is all about grouping the so-called new media into one room.

Rapidly growing among young people and college students, bloggers have become a source of political opinion and a unfiltered look at big news events like the DNC.

"Readers are hungry for more than 30 second sound-bytes," Bruenjes said.

The Big Tent will start running full time Monday morning with events lasting through the convention.

185

Bloggers play large role at convention

by Jan Biles

August 26, 2008

DENVER — The influence of bloggers is making itself known at the Democratic National Convention, and writers for one Kansas Web site are getting unconventional access to delegates, meetings and the convention floor.

EverydayCitizen.com, based in Hays, is the official blog representing Kansas in the State Blogger Corps.

"This will be a historically significant and extremely important convention to write about," Pam Pohly, editor and publisher of the site, said shortly after being selected for the corps.

Pohly, who grew up in Dallas and now lives in Hays, said "a few thousand" bloggers applied in December for credentials to the four-day Democratic National Convention, which ends Thursday. The applicants were required to list the amount of traffic their sites have, supply writing examples and show that political blogs previously had been posted at their sites.

EverydayCitizen.com ended up being selected to represent Kansas in the convention's State Blogger Corps. That means she and her writers can shadow the Kansas delegates throughout the week and one of the staff — Pohly — will be seated with the delegates on the convention floor each night.

In addition to Pohly, other EverydayCitizen.com writers include Darrell Hamlin, Dawne Leiker, Henry Schwaller and Shala Mills, who also is a delegate, all of Hays; Sarah Burris, of Lawrence; Denise Cassells, of Mound City; and Janet Morrison, who grew up in Kansas and now lives in Dallas.

More than 400 applications were received from bloggers in the United States and its territories for the State Blogger Corps, and more than 2,000 applicants were received for general credentialing.

About 120 bloggers were approved for general credentials, while 55 were chosen for the state corps. In 2004, 30 blogs were credentialed to cover the Democratic convention in Boston.

The bloggers in Denver have access to a "Blogger Lounge" inside the Pepsi Center equipped with televisions, technology resources and workspace, as well as the "Big Tent," a facility near the Pepsi Center with extra workspace and events and entertainment.

186 Pohly, whose primary career is in hospital management, said she started the group blog site because she was discouraged with the direction the federal government was taking over the past eight years. She was alarmed by the rate of inflation, loss of jobs and economic status of middle- class Americans.

She wasn't content to just sit back and let it continue.

"The Internet is so democratic," she said. "You can establish a voice, state an opinion and it's a way to be heard. So I thought I would begin a group blog Web site and write about the issues."

In February 2007, Pohly designed EverydayCitizen.com and began writing essays about health care and other issues. Today, she has a stable of 60 to 65 writers. Half of them are from Kansas.

Some of the writers have specific topics they focus on, while others write about a variety of issues. Pohly said she has sought out writers to fill voids in some content areas, such as labor, poverty and education.

"I have hand-picked the writers," she said.

Pohly said EverydayCitizen.com logs 800 user visits per hour.

"The nice thing about a blog Web site is all the essays are archived under categories (such as author, date and time)," she said. "They have a long shelf life."

Pohly said she spends more time with the writers figuring out technical issues than she does editing their essays. She prefers each person develop their own writing voice, rather than imposing hers on them.

Pohly said blogging is different than mainstream journalism.

"We bloggers depend on sources from the mainstream media. We don't do background research," she said, explaining bloggers may "flush out" or add a different viewpoint to a story a journalist has written. "We're not taking the place of mainstream media."

Blogging, she said, is "the ultimate of freedom of the press" and reflective of what Thomas Paine was doing before the Revolutionary War and Thomas Jefferson had in mind when writing the Constitution.

"Any citizen should feel free to write anything on issues of the day," she said. "Citizens have lost the freedom of the press."

But what about bloggers who purposefully write untruths in their blogs and portray that information as fact? What about people who read those blogs and make decisions based on false information?

"That's always been our right to say anything or believe anything we want to," she said.

187 Pohly believes people are becoming more sophisticated readers because when they "Google" a topic they are presented with the mainstream media's report and then a blogger's take on that report. She said a reader will then "dig deeper" to find more information.

Jan Biles can be reached at (785) 295-1292 or [email protected] .

188

The Foundry

Is Google a Force for America’s Global Hegemony?

by Conn Carroll

August 28, 2008

DENVER - Google CEO Eric Schmidt told an audience here at The Big Tent that the most common question he gets when he travels abroad is why Google insists on “supporting American hegemony.” Schmidt explained that “free speech is not a universal value” and that Google’s commitment to open accessible information is “seen as so obviously American worldwide.”

Big Tent host earlier pressed Schmidt on Google’s cooperation with China, but Schmidt insisted that the way they worked with Chinese censors (by marking where each censored word or sentence was changed) insured that many smart Chinese people would eventually track down the original and unedited versions.

Maddow also wanted to know if consumers should be afraid of the reams of personal information Google sucks up from them everyday. Schmidt was pretty dismissive insisting that Google only kept their data on consumers for 18 months at a time. He also said: “Government has guns. We don’t. We follow the law.” Schmidt said that Google has fought hard against government search warrants for their data, and have convinced federal judges they do not have to fork over that data. Schmidt did not say if Google ever sold their data to third parties who could then easily sell it to the government.

One other item of note … Schmidt mentioned that his earliest technology ventures were all funded with grants from DARPA . The liberals in the audience all took this as support of their plans for massive new central planning for a new green economy infrastructure. But really, allowing DARPA to fund promising technologies and then allowing the market to ultimately pick winners and losers, is actually a conservative model for technological change .

189

When Off the Silver Screen, Actress Daryl Hannah Seen on Frontlines of Environmental Movements

Interview

August 28, 2008

Actress Daryl Hannah is in Denver this week to attend the Green Frontier Fest and other environmental events around the Democratic National Convention. Over the past twenty-five years, Hannah has starred in dozens of films, including Blade Runner , Splash and Kill Bill . But besides the big screen, Hannah can often be seen on the frontlines of various environmental movements. Last year, she traveled to Ecuador to meet with indigenous groups suing Chevron to stop contaminating the Amazon, and before that, she spent three weeks camped in a tree in a South Central farm in Los Angeles. [includes rush transcript]

Guest:

Daryl Hannah , actor and environmental activist. Her feature films include Blade Runner , Splash , Wall Street and Kill Bill .

AMY GOODMAN: Our next guest is one of the country’s best-known actresses. Daryl Hannah has starred in dozens of films over the last twenty-five years, including Blade Runner and Splash and Wall Street and Kill Bill .

But besides the big screen, Daryl Hannah can often be seen on the frontlines of various environmental movements. Two years ago, she spent twelve days camped inside the South Central Farm in Los Angeles in an effort to save the nation’s largest urban farm. Last year, she traveled to Ecuador to meet with indigenous groups suing Chevron to stop contaminating the Amazon.

This week, she’s been in Denver to attend the Green Frontier Fest and other environmental events around the Democratic National Convention. She’s been spending time at something called the Big Tent. Well, she joins me here at Free Speech TV in Denver in the Five Points neighborhood.

Welcome to Democracy Now!

DARYL HANNAH: Thank you.

190 AMY GOODMAN: It’s good to have you with us.

DARYL HANNAH: Thank you. It’s good to be here.

AMY GOODMAN: Did you drive here?

DARYL HANNAH: I did. I rode—this was the first time I haven’t been in an electric car. I was actually in a Prius, which is unusual. I’ve been in an electric car or on those bike pedal taxis.

AMY GOODMAN: What’s your message here, Daryl?

DARYL HANNAH: I came mainly to discuss issues, because I think everyone here is focusing so much on policy and politics, that it’s, I think, important to remind ourselves to take personal responsibility and to share information about some of the issues, rather than just my guy versus your guy.

AMY GOODMAN: And what are the issues that you think are important?

DARYL HANNAH: Obviously, you know, our addiction to fossil fuels, I think is something that everyone’s greatly concerned about, not only because of the price of gas at the pump, but just because of all the destruction that it causes around the world in every single way, shape and form. And the fact that we have solutions available to us now, and other things, such as, you know, the deforestation and the destruction of our oceans. You know, just generally taking personal responsibility and taking a commonsense approach.

AMY GOODMAN: What do you think is the role of an artist, an actor, an actress, like you, in a celebrity-obsessed society? And it’s a big responsibility you have, because the cameras focus on you.

DARYL HANNAH: Well, I mean, I really think it’s the responsibility of everybody to do what they can and speak up. And yeah, artists, musicians and actors sometimes get more of a forum to speak out, but I’m surprised that more people don’t take the opportunity to speak out when they have it.

AMY GOODMAN: Are you inside the convention, too?

DARYL HANNAH: I’m not going into the convention.

AMY GOODMAN: Is that a political decision?

DARYL HANNAH: It’s just a decision, because I really like to stick to the issues and not make it about, you know, who I’m supporting in this race. I’m obviously going to vote, and I think that’s an important thing. But I’ve decided not to go into the convention.

AMY GOODMAN: You were in Ecuador. You have a house in the Rockies. You have a house in California. California is the state of Chevron, one of the largest oil corporations in the world, now posting record profits, along with ExxonMobil.

DARYL HANNAH: Right—

191 AMY GOODMAN: You met with the Ecuadorian president.

DARYL HANNAH: And also Occidental Petroleum, who’s also being sued by one of the tribes in Peru.

AMY GOODMAN: In Ecuador, you met with the president?

DARYL HANNAH: Mm-hmm.

AMY GOODMAN: To talk about?

DARYL HANNAH: Well, there’s incredible devastation because of the practices down there from ChevronTexaco. They were using unlined pits for years and years, and everybody in the entire region of that Amazon has cancer or, you know, is just completely devastated, and they never took responsibility. And they never cleaned it up. And the people are suffering, and they want ChevronTexaco to take responsibility for the damage that they caused.

And so, they filed the lawsuit, and the president there is supporting the indigenous community, which is a first, you know, and so we went and met with him and with the tribes there who are struggling to keep further encroachment upon their lands out and also to try to get some bioremediation.

AMY GOODMAN: You also sat in a tree in the largest farm—it was in South Central—to save this urban farm. You sat in this tree for twelve days?

DARYL HANNAH: No, three weeks—three-and-a-half weeks.

AMY GOODMAN: Three-and-a-half weeks.

DARYL HANNAH: Yeah. There’s actually a film showing today, this afternoon, about it here called The Garden , which is really about the political corruption behind it, which led to the destruction of the farm.

AMY GOODMAN: And explain what the Big Tent is here.

DARYL HANNAH: The Big Tent is—it’s a place that was set up by the Alliance for a Sustainable Colorado that has a space for all the different independent bloggers and independent media to come and cover the convention and the different issues and people who are coming to speak. So you can meet people like Lester Brown and Bobby Kennedy and, you know, all sorts of people who come to speak on panels on different issues, and it gives a forum for all the independent media.

AMY GOODMAN: What do you want people to know, in this last fifteen seconds, as you’re here, not inside the convention, but outside, in the streets, at the Green Frontier Fest and other places?

DARYL HANNAH: Well, I think that to understand how big of an impact your own personal decisions in the way that you live your life, how big of an impact that can have, because if everyone really took responsibility for themselves, we wouldn’t be in such a big mess.

192 AMY GOODMAN: Well, Daryl Hannah, we’ll leave it there. Thank you very much for joining us.

DARYL HANNAH: Thank you.

AMY GOODMAN: Yes, the actress and environmental activist. Her feature films, well, include many, like Wall Street and Kill Bill . Her website is dhlovelife.com .

193

Changing Representations in the Media

by Jenna Wandres

September 2, 2008

Slant. Bias. "Selective" reporting.

No matter the label, the problem persists, that of a mainstream media that decides how any given issue is going to be presented to the American people.

In the media tent outside the Democratic National Convention, a panel sponsored by Common Cause addressed the impact of mass media on public perception of issues like climate change, youth political engagement, and civil rights.

All the panelists faced the challenge of trying to reframe their issues in a positive light in the media. Gene Karpinsky, executive director of League of Conservation Voters, said that he works to make sure candidates are addressing climate change in their platforms and with the press. Heather Smith, executive director of Rock the Vote, tries to dispel the myth that youth are apathetic by replacing those images in the media with images of exuberant and engaged teens.

Mark Lloyd, vice president for strategic initiatives at the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, said that media coverage of civil rights hasn't progressed since the 1960s. "The big challenge that the media faces is that they are trapped in the notion that civil rights is the same thing as black people," said Lloyd.

Lloyd argued that turning a blind eye to inequality not only harms those being discriminated against, but it also creates the perception that we are living in an environment where race does not matter.

"The fact that an African American is running for president is great," said Lloyd. "However, it does not mean that the struggle for equality is over. The media doesn't really cover the incidences of discrimination that happen on a regular basis across the country, and it creates a fantasy world where inequality isn't an issue anymore."

David Bennahum, the founder of the Center for Independent Media, observed that a common thread running through each panelist's account was "a recognition that the news shapes public opinion in this country." Traditionally, media bias has played a big role in shaping public discourse and thought, but new technologies and media have created avenues for many people to participate and create their own stories.

194 "Thanks to new media, we can present new, fact-based information about these issues that themselves potentially help to drive the conversation surrounding the news," said Bennahum.

All of the panelists cited stories of successfully promoting their issues in blogs and other non- traditional media outlets.

"These really are good stories," said Lloyd about the panelists' experiences. "Unfortunately, they're not stories that the media is set up to tell. I think that new media has the potential to change that."

This panel was held in the "Big Tent" in Denver. The Big Tent is a gathering of speakers and bloggers who discuss and distribute information regarding issues facing the candidates in this election and is not officially affiliated with the Democratic National Committee. For more information and live video streaming through the end of this week, visit www.bigtentdenver.org .

195

Democratic Convention, Day 1: From The Speaker's Platform, Women Rule

by Joe Rothstein

August 25, 2008

Al Gore and John Kerry each lost male voters by about 9 percentage points in their presidential runs. From current polling in the 2008 race, few expect Barack Obama to do any better. So to win in November Obama needs to rack up a big majority among women---more than the 7 point majority that preferred John Kerry.

That piece of election research helps explain the first day's speakers' line up at the Democratic National Convention. No fewer than 17 women are scheduled to speak today---and that's just during the opening session. Tonight's prime time speaker is Michelle Obama. Her warm up act is Missouri U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill.

Tonight's show also features a tribute to ailing U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy----moderated by none other than niece Caroline Kennedy.

The female face will be ever present throughout the convention in the person of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who will chair the convention and California Rep Doris Matsui, who will serve as parliamentarian.

Convention planners selected women to lead today's invocation, the pledge of allegiance, the roll call, the platform committee report, and to serve as the convention's CEO and four convention co-chairs. Today's speakers also include Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL; Lisa Madigan, Illinois' attorney general; Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers; Margie Perez, a singer/songwriter, and Obama's half sister, Maya Soetoro Ng.

Hillary supporters may still be grumpy about the way the primaries turned out, but they can hardly object to the opening day tilt to the female persuasion. And that, of course, will be followed on Tuesday by Hillary and the accompanying raucous demonstration.

If convention planners are majoring in women, they are minoring in Hispanics, who also are well represented on the opening day's program.

*********Trouble? What Trouble?

Law enforcement has been mobilizing for months to head off anticipated trouble in the streets. Hints of trouble have been fomented by points of reference as diverse as anti-war groups and Rush Limbaugh, who's openly called for his supporters to create scenes of street tension that

196 would draw TV cameras and make Democrats look scary.

But as opening convention days go, Sunday was pretty tame. Cindy Sheehan mustered an audience of no more than 200 when she spoke at the state capital. Nancy Pelosi was evacuated from her hotel after a man tried to check in with two hunting rifles, 2 pistols and no permits to carry them. Across town, police blew up an abandoned back pack left unattended at the Denver bus station. The most exciting hint of violence Sunday was a tornado that touched down just southeast of Denver.

********A Lot of Big Wheels At The Convention

For the Olympics, Beijing moved a lot of cars off its streets to hold down pollution. Denver's hoping to keep a lot of cars off its streets and permanently replace them with bicycles.

As a kickoff to convention activities Sunday, Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper launched the nation's largest bike-sharing program to date. Healthcare company Humana and the nonprofit cycling advocacy group Freewhellin' brought 1000 bikes to Denver for the convention, to be used free by all participants. Hickenlooper led 100 cyclists through the streets of Denver. The same program moves to Minneapolis next week for the Republican National Convention.

Nearly 40 percent of all trips Americans make are two miles or less -- the perfect length to go by bike.

***********For Those Who Think A Convention's A Circus

That 8,000-square-foot tent outside the convention center isn't for the circus. Peak inside and you will see 800 bloggers who paid $100 each to set up shop for the convention. Many A-list politicians and policymakers have promised to stop by. The Big Tent is the brainchild of Netroots Nation, the liberal online convention that grew out of the Daily Kos political blog community. The blogs will connect mainly with younger voters who are increasingly active in this year's presidential campaigns.

Democratic convention officials say that 15% of the convention's delegates are 36 years old or younger---up from 9% in 2004.

************Obama's Ahead In Colorado---Unless He's Behind

As the convention gets under way, Democrats are buoyed by a new Suffolk University poll that shows Obama leading McCain in Colorado 44-39. Or, they are concerned by a new Quinnipiac poll that shows McCain leading Obama in Colorado 46-44.

Ah, well. That's life in the margin of error.

Joe Rothstein is a veteran national political strategist and media producer and editor of USPoliticstoday.com. He can be contacted at [email protected].

197

Debuting Activism at the Democratic Convention

by Laura Carlsen

August 26, 2008

The Big Tent, a blogging center set up by the Daily Kos and other groups, is full and buzzing already. It's an exciting tribute to a new kind of journalism, what Markos Moulitsas, the founder of Daily Kos, has called bypassing, crushing and influencing the gatekeepers. The people who work here are the critics, and not the sycophants of the mainstream media. So while the mainstream media attempts to impose its own news agenda on the convention process, many of these people look for the stories that aren't being covered and debunk some of the "news" being fed through the usual channels. They're wiring back to networks that crisscross regions, sectors, interests in thousands of ways and forms.

The mainstream media has decided that supposed internal bickering is more newsworthy than grassroots organizing and has turned its cameras on the disgruntled Hillary supporters for today. Conflict trumps unity as a headliner and much of the media feels a need to create tempests in teapots to feed the news cycle. But as usual, the story at eye level is more interesting and has more long-term implications than the politicking in the stratospheres of power.

There are many people here who have become grassroots organizers in this campaign -- and electoral campaigns in the U.S. are not known for bringing about that particular type of conversion. Among progressives, some simply switched causes, augmenting a wide range of NGO work with the Obama campaign. But others are looking at organizing for the first time and breaking down the mystique surrounding both elections (usually restricted to vote casting or at best canvassing) and organizing itself. Many of these come from sectors left on the margins of party politics -- for the first time, nearly a quarter of delegates are African-American and nearly half from one "minority" group or another. Many young people have joined the ranks of the grassroots organizers.

Sure, it's still in the context of representative democracy -- by its nature, not the most hands-on variety. And the activism of the Obama campaign that we're seeing here in Denver might be ephemeral, the heat of the electoral moment inspiring normally complacent citizens. But there's always that handful who will come out of it saying, if we did this, maybe we can improve our community, or make the democratic party more responsive, or reform foreign policy, or...

The campaign is encouraging, even promoting, this kind of conversion through organizing workshops and new technological tools for multiplying voter registration efforts like this one. Some of these new activists will shipwreck early on the shoals of disappointment or frustration. The U.S. political system guards its shores with these obstacles. But others -- who knows where they'll sail off to.

198

Big Tent Tour: Inside Blogger DNC Headquarters (And Spa)

by Kelly Nuxoll

August 25, 2008

DENVER -- This week here, there is the convention at the Pepsi Center -- the five-tier, 15,000- seat, Secret Service-guarded sports arena where 6000 delegates will hammer out the during the day and Michelle Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Joe Biden will speak in the evening.

Then there is the convention at the Big Tent -- a two-story, canvas-sided, eco-friendly makeshift structure where 700 bloggers, independent media, sponsors, and non-profit representatives will get online, write, post, lounge, snack, drink free beer, deliberate, do yoga and, thanks to the Huffington Post's own "Oasis," enjoy mini-facials and hand massages.

Given the number of people clamoring for passes, the Big Tent would seem to be the main event this week and the Pepsi Center the sideshow -- perhaps the final indication that the center of power in the Democratic party has shifted from to the grassroots and online activists.

The idea for the Big Tent came from Bobby Clark, who'd worked on Howard Dean's presidential campaign and is now the National Executive Director of ProgressNow, a website started in Denver that organizes progressives to take political action. (And, full disclosure, a good friend of mine.) Bloggers, he realized, would need a place to go at the convention, where press access is restricted to those with credentials and where wireless access is limited.

With sponsorship from Google and Digg, among others, the Big Tent expanded to offer a lounge, a stage where speakers could address audiences of up to 350, breakout rooms for smaller gatherings, free lunch and dinner, a beer garden with an open tap, morning yoga, and a spa. A convention and media center in one, the Big Tent went up in two weeks and offers more wireless portals than the Denver Airport.

In messages and on the streets in Denver the last few days, alt media people have told each other they'd meet at the Big Tent. Many have been collaborating online for months, if not years, and the Big Tent will be their opportunity to meet for the first time face-to-face. Mainstream media, too, is seeking to get in on the action. CNN will be filming there this week, and representatives from organizations too late, too skeptical, or too cheap to pay the $100 entrance fee are now offering to buy or asking to share passes.

The best-case scenario may be that the Big Tent brings more people into politics by giving them more access to media and to each other. The worst-case scenario may be that the Big Tent, which

199 includes a VIP blogger lounge, is a victim of its own success, substituting one exclusive political culture for another.

200

The Democratic Convention Was Anything But Conventional

by David Sirota

August 29, 2008

When I first heard about the Democratic convention coming to my hometown of Denver, I wasn't all that excited. For many reasons, in fact, I was pretty unhappy with the whole idea.

As a transplant who moved from the overpopulated East Coast to the more manageable Rocky Mountain West, I was not looking forward to huge crowds taking over what is usually a pretty quiet town. As a D.C.-hater who fled Washington's career-climbers, I was annoyed that Beltway parasites would be infesting my backyard. And as an activist who has spent a career attacking — and trying to halt — the influence of money on politicians, I was nauseated that a corporate- funded bonanza draped in Democratic Party bunting would take place just a few miles from my house.

Now that the convention is over, I can report that all of what I feared, in fact, took place. Denver's downtown became a perpetual throng, insufferable Washington hacks from my past were unavoidable, and corporate money was so ubiquitous that even my ticket holder was emblazoned with a Qwest logo.

That said, I can also report that this spectacle actually had value, beyond the free booze and celebrity sightings. Conventions, I discovered, can be building blocks of social change — and if this year's Democratic convention ends up with any historical legacy beyond nominating Barack Obama, it will likely be remembered as one of many events that helped forge a contemporary progressive movement.

Just outside the convention hall, the disparate threads of were brought together under one tent — literally. On an empty parking lot, progressive nonprofit organizations built a two-story pavilion out of tarp and beams. The Big Tent, as it was called, housed the grass-roots groups and new-media outlets that are pressuring the Democratic Party to stay true to its progressive base. Meanwhile, new independent films like "Battle in Seattle" — which indict both parties' economic orthodoxies and are often ignored by major film distributors — found enthusiastic audiences at a nearby movie theater.

201 Inside the Pepsi Center, the same movement drumbeat broke through the partisan noise.

The tables of live broadcast radio shows teemed not merely with right-wing loudmouths, but also with new left-leaning voices (and news of movement progressive Rachel Maddow getting her own MSNBC show was the hot topic among delegates).

Labor leaders celebrated their success in amending the Democratic Party platform with language demanding a reform of Bill Clinton's NAFTA policies. And the two most talked-about speeches — one an emotional oratory by "liberal lion" Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.), the other a populist battle cry by Gov. (D-Mont.) — drove home the convention's overarching theme: The progressive movement is on the ascent, overtaking the business- backed triangulators that have been running the Democratic Party — and the country — into the ground.

But perhaps the convention's value was most pronounced at the interpersonal level where liberal activists kibbitzed with campaign operatives, bloggers met politicians, and — as I saw firsthand — potential Obama administration officials began dialoguing with Congress' most committed progressive leaders.

Standing in the hot sun on the convention's third day, I happened to be arguing trade policy with Austan Goolsbee, the moderate University of Chicago professor who is Barack Obama's chief economic adviser. In the corner of my eye, I saw an old Capitol Hill acquaintance, Rep. Peter DeFazio — the progressive champion from Oregon. I introduced the two, and within minutes they were finding points of agreement on economic issues.

Watching these very different Democrats briefly go back and forth, I considered how many similar -building conversations were happening all week. I remembered that while conventions are usually television shows and business-sponsored cocktail parties, they can, at moments, be something more.

David Sirota is a best-selling author whose newest book, "The Uprising," was just released this month. He is a fellow at the Campaign for America's Future and a board member of the Progressive States Network -- both nonpartisan organizations. His blog is at www.credoaction.com/sirota.

202

Inside the Tent at ABC News

by SteveK

August 29, 2008

As the Democratic convention ends and the Republican convention is about to get underway, the one constant will be the media — either en route to or already broadcasting from St. Paul.

And one of the constants of the media presence is the set up — large tents and small trailers that house all aspects of broadcasting the news. TVNewser stopped by ABC's tent and got a tour of the various departments housed in the big tent.

At one computer, ABC News correspondent and Weekend GMA anchor Kate Snow was writing her story for that night's broadcast. Snow begins reporting from her sixth convention Monday. "Each one is a little different," she tells TVNewser.

Echoing the sentiment of many of the ABC News crew, Snow described the over- orchestration of the event.

"They're held in large part for the people at home," she said. "And we, the media, are part of the show. So it is a little hard."

Nightline's was also at work on the other side of the tent. He described 's role at the conventions, and how ABC News compares to the cablers.

Of the cable news networks, he said, "They dominant the punditry of the convention," while ABC wants, "To be smarter, authoritative in a way."

As Nightline anchor, Moran sees the huge positives of closing the nightly discussion at each convention. "It's a great role," he said. "We can wrap it up in what we hope is a smart, fun, different way."

A few tables away, Charlie Gibson was preparing for an upcoming interview. Of course, he could also have been prepping for his newest blog entry. The World Newser , Gibson's blog, has been active at the conventions.

"He seems to be getting a lot of response already," said World News EP Jon Banner of the blog.

203 Banner described with pride the news-making Money Trail segments at the DNC and looked forward to next week's reports at the RNC. "It takes a significant amount of resources — not only time, but financially," he said. "It's something we're really proud of."

On the other side of the tent, Sam Donaldson prepared for his ABC News Now Web program. Donaldson and Rick Klein , editor of The Note anchor coverage every night from 6-11pmET. The camera set up (pictured) is where correspondents file reports for the show.

We talked to Fiona Conway , who as executive director of ABC NewsOne, is responsible for overseeing the affiliate news service. At conventions, the amount of partnership work is increased. From Al-Jazeera to CTV in Canada, many networks from around the world depend on the affiliate feeds.

As does Jimmy Kimmel Live — the show hits the conventions and produces segments with Kimmel's dad, who bears a striking resemblance to CNN's Wolf Blitzer (see here for evidence ).

204

MSNBC tensions, bloggers highlight Democratic convention media news

by Frank Washkuch

August 29, 2008

Other than on-the-air tension at MSNBC , the big media story from the Democratic National Convention was the role of bloggers. The Democrats allowed unprecedented access to bloggers, credentialing almost 100 national political blogs and 55 state blogs. Rapper Will.I.Am called the event the first “batonical” convention – meaning a theoretical baton has been passed to new media. Meanwhile, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette highlighted the “big tent,” the blogger refuge just a short walk from Denver's Pepsi Center.

Also in the media glare:

CBS relaunches CNET's Web site.

Roger Ebert has strong words for newly departed Chicago Sun-Times columnist Jay Mariotti.

Bloomberg accidentally runs Steve Jobs' obituary.

Editor & Publisher finally enters the world of blogging.

US News & World Report sees a visitor surge as a result of its America's Best College portal.

205

The Corporate Convention

by Matt Cooper

August 27, 2008

Matt Cooper reports from Denver: A lot's been written about the corporate presence at these conventions . Unlike the election campaigns, corporations can donate directly to the convention operations themselves. And that's just the ones who pay to be official designees.

There's a myriad of other opportunities to get their message across. The Clean Coal people are handing out fans that say, "I Support Clean Energy." Starz, the cable movie channel, has an oasis- like green room near the Pepsi Center where you can catch lectures and films. In the convention center, where many meetings are held, there are corporate booths from HP to AT&T to UPS. There are bicycle pedicabs with Hogan & Hartson, the law firm, emblazoned on the sides.

There's a lot of selling. Google is one of the biggest names, sponsoring a host of activities at The Big Tent, the site near the Pepsi Center that's home to a lot of the bloggers. Eric Schmitt, the C.E.O., will be here tomorrow. And the big end of convention party is being hosted by Google and our sister mag, Vanity Fair .

Benefiting from all the flowing liquor and food and largesse, I'm not one to criticize all of this. Whether the corporations who make a statement here are getting much for their money isn't entirely clear, either. Google doesn't have to be here to be a monolith. And, goodness knows, there's any number of unions and advocacy groups here.

The irony is that as conventions become less and less important to the nominating process and become four-day , the more everybody wants in on the act.

206

Ustream and Google News Team Up to Provide Live Streaming for the Republican National Convention

September 4, 2008

Voters around the country have a front row seat to history in the making as the Republican Party formally chooses its nominees at the Republican National Convention (RNC), Sept. 1-4, 2008 in St. Paul, Minnesota. The GOP chose Ustream, the leader in live streaming online, today as its exclusive live streaming partner because of its innovative technology platform, proven ability to handle enormous amounts of web traffic and large community of millions of monthly viewers who gather to share live moments. Through this agreement, Ustream is enabling its expansive community to view the Republican National Convention through Google News. Google News features an embedded Ustream player, which is broadcasting the RNC, in its Election News section.

Historic Political Access with Google News and Ustream

-- The RNC coverage via Ustream represents the first time Google will be providing live streaming content on its site. Viewers are participating in another political milestone - giving people the power to watch and interact with a major political convention on the Web. The Republican National Convention is utilizing the Internet to directly broadcast messages to voters.

-- Special chat is enabled for viewers to interact with each other while watching the convention. The Republicans are utilizing Ustream's unique communication channels. Ustream broadcasted the Big Tent of 500 bloggers, hosted by the Daily Kos and ProgressNow, and sponsored by key companies Google and Digg, at the Democratic National Convention last week.

"Our partnership with Google News and the Republican National Convention illustrates our ongoing commitment to providing unfiltered live access to the moments and events that matter most," said Brad Hunstable, founder, Ustream. "There is an incredible level of interest in American politics, and Google News, through Ustream, is giving people an insider's view of everything that's happening at the convention."

GOP Convention President and CEO, Maria Cino said of the deal inked in January: "Partnering with Ustream sends a clear message that the Republican Party wants the Internet generation and all people - from Party loyalists to casual observers - to be part of the 2008 Republican National Convention. Anyone with computer and Internet access will be guaranteed a front-row seat to history through www.GOPConvention2008.com, as we formally nominate the next President and Vice President of the United States." (January 29, 2008)

Related Links www.ustream.tv/rnc www.ustream.tv www.GOPconvention2008.com

207 About Ustream

Ustream connects people through shared online experiences. It's the leading live interactive broadcasting tool that enables anyone with a camera and an Internet connection to easily broadcast to a global audience of any size. In less than two minutes, anyone can become a broadcaster by creating a channel on Ustream, and by embedding the personalized Ustream channel into any website.

Ustream is a destination for community to share live moments. Since its launch in March 2007, Ustream has grown to nearly 500,000 registered users broadcasting thousands of live shows a day. Ustream is headquartered in Mountain View, California, and is privately held.

Ustream.TV Casey Georgeson 415-310-3484 [email protected]

208

World Saved As "Bloggers" Mob Political Conventions

by Henry Blodget

September 1, 2008

The myth that old media outlets provide responsible news coverage and new media outlets just rant took another hit last week, as new media staffers flooded into Denver to cover the DNC. Photo - NYT's David Carr (right, with Arianna Huffington):

Politico, which also puts out a newspaper, had 40 people in Denver. The Huffington Post had 20 people, Talking Points Memo had 9, Daily Kos had 10, Slate had 7 and Salon had 9. That list is far from comprehensive and does not begin to describe how thoroughly mediated this convention was. (I was talking with Craig Newmark while he blogged in the Big Tent and realized the kids across from him were live-blogging our conversation.)

The turnout also helped muffle the self-serving whine about how the world is going to hell in a handbasket now that newspapers are going out of business. (Who will gather news when the Washington Post shuts down its print operation? Daily Kos , Politico , et al. Daily Kos , by the way, had 37 million pageviews for the month. A successful small web operation might have 1-2 million. And Politico , of course, is run by people who used to work at the Washington Post: It's just a business model that is dying here, not a profession.

The success of new media is forcing old media to evolve (see Mr. Carr above), mostly in ways that most consumers enjoy. And the distinction between "old" and "new" media is rapidly disappearing as professional news and commentary blends into a richer, more comprehensive ecosystem. If anything these days, there's too much coverage, not too little . Slate's Jacob Weisberg:

"I witnessed some High Noon showdowns with digicams... They’d say, ‘Am I interviewing me or am I interviewing you?’ These threatened to generate an infinite regression of media coverage, in which you interview me about what I thought about you interviewing me during my interview with you. It made me want to go home and read a book.” [email protected]

209

Deconstructing the Ethnic Vote at the DNC

by Anthony D. Advincula

August 29, 2008

Will ethnic Americans vote in large numbers for Obama? NAM asked ethnic media journalists attending the DNC event in Denver to get some answers. Anthony D. Advincula is NAM New York based editor.

DENVER, Colo.—Will Chinese-American voters who largely supported Hillary Clinton be ready for Barack Obama? How about Pakistani Americans who presently have two Republican members in the legislature? Are Latino voters now more concerned about the U.S. economy than immigration? Will the majority of African-American voters in republican states vote democratic this year?

Here at The Big Tent, a few blocks from the Pepsi Convention Center, members of New York’s ethnic media participated this week in a radio project called “Feet in Two Worlds.” They talked about the impact of ethnic voters in the coming U.S. presidential election and whether immigrant voters connect to the Democratic candidates this year. New York Community Media Alliance co- sponsored 10 ethnic and community journalists to cover the DNC.

With shifting political parties’ allegiances, a trend that is becoming more prevalent in their communities, both Democrats and Republicans are wooing ethnic voters. Political analysts described them as the swing vote that would be critical to the outcome of this year’s election.

“While the majority of our voters like Barack Obama, many are also supporting John McCain and the Republicans,” says Muhammad Jehangir-Khan, a reporter for the Dawn, an English- language online publication for Muslim Americans.

The conservative views of Republicans, Khan says, have drawn a large number of Pakistani- and Muslim-American voters to back John McCain. The two Pakistani-American members of the U.S. legislature, who are republicans, are contributing to the strong Republican Party appeal in the community.

But Khan says that Pakistani-American voters are beginning to understand who Obama is and his political platform for the American people, most particularly for Muslim Americans.

“Obama’s record on reaching out to Muslim community is actually not that impressive,” Khan says. “But because he is committed to change, the Muslim-American, and South Asian- American communities as a whole, are now beginning to believe that he is the person who could stand up for us.” Muslim Americans, the victims of racial profiling and hate crimes after the

210 Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, view Obama as their “ray of hope.”

In the Chinese-American community, according to Lotus Chau, chief reporter for the Chinese- language Sing Tao Daily in New York, the political debate focuses mainly on race. She says that no one wants to talk openly about it because of its racist implication, but a large number of Chinese Americans may not vote for Obama, even those who considered themselves Democrats, because he is black.

“I don’t think Chinese voters are ready for a black president,” Chau says.

Chau says she believes Chinese-American voters who strongly backed Hillary Clinton are unlikely to shift to Obama’s camp. “I even talked to a Chinese-American delegate here at the Democratic Convention, and she admitted that if she had a choice, she [wouldn’t] be here. In the end, she will vote for McCain.”

Asked whether the prejudice in the Chinese-American community could change, Chau says that “it would [take] long years of education.” But if Obama continues to reach out to Chinese Americans and build strong ties with the community, he could win more Chinese votes, she says.

But Kaiping Liu, deputy city editor for The World Journal in California, says that the race factor is not everything in the Chinese community. “While it is partially true that many Chinese voters don’t like Obama because he is black, the young Chinese voters like him a lot.”

Liu says that for the majority of younger Chinese voters – most of them American-born – view having a black U.S. president as history in the making. “They support him – and they will surely vote for him,” Liu says.

Raymond Dean Jones, a political columnist for Denver Urban Spectrum, a community paper that serves , admitted that Obama’s campaign also started slow in the black community.

Although there was speculation among African Americans that Obama is a “hotshot,” he was not well known in the community. “But what really opens the door for Barack is Michelle,” Jones says. Because of Michelle Obama – someone who is strong, educated and tough – blacks believe that she has the attributes of a first lady. Then, Jones says, it became easy for black people to listen to his message about change.

But is Barack Obama now making a connection with black voters, even in Republican states? “Amazingly, for me he is,” Jones says. “But he needed to win the presumptive nomination – and that’s not happening in the south, because most of blacks in the south are still leaning towards Hillary Clinton.”

With Hillary showing enormous support to Obama’s campaign, despite apprehension among her supporters to shift their votes, Jones says that Obama is now “making strong gains and people are going to vote for him.”

For Latinos, the Obama-Clinton push and pull, could still be felt in the community, according to Pilar Marerro, political writer and columnist for La Opinion, a Spanish-language publication based in Los Angeles, Calif.

“Obama started late reaching out to Latinos,” Marrero says “This is a struggle now.”

Presently, Latino voter support for Obama is not as strong as that for Hillary during the primary

211 elections. However, with the present economic downturn, war, and the rhetoric on immigration by Republicans, Marrero says many Latino voters are shifting to Obama.

212

Voices without Votes on the Convention

by Solana Larsen

August 28, 2008

Getting anywhere near The Big Tent is a hectic experience. There are several degrees of credentials, bracelets for backstage, dozens of smiling volunteers, free massages by Google, and free burritos and beer. This isn't where the politicians are speaking (although many visit). This is where the bloggers are convened with their power plugs, wifi, and laptops galore, writing I'm-not-sure-what yet, because I haven't had a chance to read it.

The Big Tent is ordinarily a parking lot, but now has an enormous two-story tent erected on it. The panel I spoke on was upstairs from the bloggers. The panels are back to back. Mine was organized by the Better World Campaign of the UN Foundation, and was primarily about a new poll they have published that says Americans care about foreign policy. The fact that this would be news, is sort of astonishing to me. But there is some scientific method to help establish the fact that this has changed in the past year. I always wonder whether people just respond according to what they happened to see on the news the night before.

I spoke about the work my colleagues Amira, John, Jillian and many others from Global Voices are doing on Voices without Votes , a website sponsored by Reuters where we are tracking non-American responses to the US presidential election and foreign policy. I personally, think Americans tend to focus too much on what foreign policy means for themselves (and how people perceive them), and not enough on what it means for citizens in other countries. The questions I got during the panel reinforced my sense of this.

Let me paraphrase: Do non-American bloggers say that America doesn't accomplish it's foreign policy goals? What do bloggers in the Middle East say about American women?

In other words, what does the rest of the world think about America. Well, I don't know. I think most of the time they too, are thinking more about themselves, and interpreting world events according to what makes sense in their own hemispheres and blogospheres. Please visit Voices without Votes to see the many, many different things bloggers around the world are saying. Unlike pollsters, we don't pretend to speak on behalf of entire populations or the world - but we do hope to give a taste of what foreign opinion and reasoning looks like.

213

"Conventional Wisdom"

by Hissyspit

August 28, 2008

As I sit here in Mile-High Stadium on Day 4 of the Democratic Convention, Days 2 and 3 have become more of a blur, it seems, in retrospect, reflecting on my journey through the floating world of of the DNC. Pols, MSM members and members of the foreign press, cool bloggers, celebrities, protesters, riot police, delegates, tourists, homeless, hawkers, DNC staff members and volunteers, a few freeps - all have been part of the experience of this political-tribal gathering. How to present and what of it to present has been the challenge that competes with, and co-exists with, the logistics of functioning here for five days. Only a few small crises, a lost camera/USB cord that was really only left at the hotel room, major blisters on the feet, misjudging how much time one has to get from the blogger's Big Tent (which has been a embryonic but successful resource) to the hall, where to go and to whom to pay or give attention. Mostly it has been stimulating, and only slightly surreal. But what has and does it mean?

The U.S. political convention is a conventional anachronism, according to David Shribman in the Globe and Mail a few days ago. Bill Curry, former counselor to President Clinton, here in Denver, wrote a few days ago that delegates enter a kind of bubble here.

By and large, delegates are no better informed than folks back home. Due to the rigors of constant partying, they read fewer newspapers and see less television. They spend long hours shuttling to events in vans full of people who agree with them about almost everything. They lose perspective.

I think that part of what it means to be here doing what I've been doing (for the technical better or worse of it) is actually an attempt to be part of a Rheingold "smart mob" (intelligent emergent behavior, anyone?), rather than a resident of an echo chamber.

Tuesday, I met Digby the famed blogger, known for incisively cutting to the marrow of the matter, while in the 40-minute long security line to get into the convention hall. She is taking part in a panel today at the Big Tent on the topic of "The Progressive Moment: Blog For Our Future - 'the progressive moment' and the role of the progressive blogosphere in setting the stage for political

214 transformation in 2009 and beyond. We'll exchange ideas on the strategies that can be put in place over the coming weeks for setting a progressive agenda, consolidating public support and holding elected officials accountable." That sounds to me as valuable an activity as any that has occurred here (although the Indian Pale Ales at the Skylark Lounge are up at the top of the list, too.), but, yes, I would have loved to get a picture with Rachel Maddow. She moderated a "town-hall" with the CEO of Google at 10 this morning in The Big Tent and I was much too exhausted from the night before to make the meet. Myself, meet kick.

I remarked to someone back home in North Carolina in the rush to get ready before I left for Colorado, "You do realize I am going in order to do my part to save this country from itself?" The statement just popped out of me at one moment, I guess as an explanation for the expenditure of time and other resources to take part in this. Four more years of bizarrely rationalized radical right-wing rule, incompetence, corruption, patrio-masturbation and demagoguery disjointed from logic and compassion? The overturning of Roe v. Wade? No, thanks. Is that, in that statement, where the meaning is to be found for me? Or is it just to be able to say "I will be in the stadium for Barack Obama's acceptance speech tonight, and I will be witness to history?" Both.

Eh, enough. Here's a butt-load of photographs for you from Days 2 and 3!

PHOTO

Tuesday, Dan Rather gave an excellent presentation in The Big Tent to journalists and bloggers, discussing the state of American media, Bill Moyers, the film "Body of War," and more. DUer DFW's notations on Rather's talk concerning the "sorry state" of mainstream corporate media is here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discu...

PHOTO

MEANWHILE, as I previously mentioned, current CBS Nightly News anchor Katie Couric, was downstairs meeting with bloggers, and with Gerry Leary, master coffee roaster for The Unseen Bean of Boulder, CO. I believe I first learned of Unseen Bean on DU, but here's the website: http://www.theunseenbean.com . Gerry says there that his passion for coffee began "in 1994 when visiting a San Francisco cafe. I heard what sounded like a rock tumbler and discovered it was a coffee roaster. I realized then that coffee didn't have to be flat and bitter, as coffee roasting was a true art form. Blind from birth, my visual impairment kept me from finding an apprenticeship in the coffee business. So I attended the San Francisco Coffee Training Institute and began my journey in the land of gourmet coffee roasting."

MORE PHOTOS AND CAPTIONS

215

Following political conventions the Web 2.0 way

by Heather Havenstein

August 25, 2008

From C-SPAN to Digg, bevy of sites offers ways to follow and comment on the conventions

In 2004, the Democratic National Convention Committee (DNCC) provided official press credentials to about 30 bloggers to cover the party's convention. For this year's convention , some 120 bloggers gained official credentials , and many more are expected to cover the event -- many from a new 9,000-square-foot, two-story structure called The Big Tent, which is sponsored by political blogs and Web 2.0 companies such as Digg Inc. and Google Inc. The Web site associated with the building in Denver will allow credentialed bloggers and citizen journalists to post content throughout the event, which ends Thursday night. The Big Tent is but one example of the various ways in which Web 2.0 tools will be used to follow the Democratic and Republican national conventions this week and next, respectively, where Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) will officially become their party's presidential candidates. C-SPAN , for example, overhauled its Web sites for the Democratic National Convention and the Republican National Convention to add the ability to incorporate citizen journalism from blogs, Twitter , YouTube and video streaming site Qik, noted TechCrunch blogger Michael Arrington . "But unlike the unwieldy content on the main C-SPAN site, the new sites will show video in Flash format and allow embedding on other sites," Arrington added. "C-SPAN employees will be given Qik cameras to record the action when not on main camera. All in all, it's a great effort to spice up coverage with user-generated, up-to-the-minute content. It may have the most up to date news on the conventions." Other ways to follow the conventions on the Web include the following:

• Using a Twitter tool like Search Twitter to follow the Twitter tags "#dnc08," "#rnc08" or #bigtent" and get constant updates of posts about the conventions on the Twitter microblogging site. • Using a new Digg feature called Digg Dialogg , which allows users to pose questions via submitted text or video to featured guests. The first guest will be U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, who will be taking questions Wednesday, noted Digg founder . Users can vote questions up or down.

216 • Using a new Sunlight Foundation online tool called Party Time , which tracks who attended parties thrown at the two conventions. The foundation is a nonpartisan organization that intends to use the Internet to make information about Congress and the government more accessible to citizens. • Using an RSS feeder to follow the posts of all credentialed DNC bloggers with an online tool created by Brian Sykora, a strategy associate at political consulting firm EchoDitto in Washington.

Micah Sifry, a blogger at TechPresident, noted that the organizers of the events themselves have not moved to gear the events for the online world, leaving Web 2.0 participation up to the organizations listed above. "Not only are these gatherings still completely geared for television … they're designed for television circa 1990," Sifry said. "Think of it: All they need to do is put up a big banner behind the speakers each night saying, 'Join the conversation -- go to www.democrats.org or www.rnc.org and set up an interface to involve people in live chats by state or ZIP code.' State delegations could be enlisted to participate." Even without such efforts, he predicted that tens of thousands of people will participate virtually in the conventions by creating and participating in conversations online. "For millions of people, politics is no longer a spectator sport," he said. "We've gotten involved in co-creating the campaigns and co-shaping the public discourse, and we like it. We're off the bus, out of the smoke-filled room, and crashing the gates."

217

Denver recap and St. Paul update

by Rick Klau, Brittany Bohnet, and Steve Grove, Google Elections Team

September 2, 2008

Denver recap and St. Paul update

The general election season officially kicked off last week as delegates gathered in Denver for the Democratic National Convention - and Google and YouTube were there to enable and promote the use of the Internet to bring voters and candidates closer than ever before. People across the U.S. were able to keep up with the latest convention news and action using YouTube, Picasa and Election News - centralized and featured on our Conventions site.

On the ground, delegates and attendees got a taste of Google at our Google Retreat in the Big Tent, where they could drink refreshing smoothies, enjoy free massages and sample our newest election products, including the 2008 U.S. Elections site, the Google Maps Election Gallery and Power Readers in Politics.

Many of our Democratic guests took the time to post video nominations of Senator Barack Obama at YouTube booths in the Google Retreat and inside the Pepsi Center. Our goal was to allow those in attendance to express their enthusiasm for the Party on video - and allow voters at home a more robust and diverse view of the proceedings in Denver than ever before. We collected over 500 such videos from delegates on hand. In addition, party and political leaders – among them Governor Mark Warner, Senator , Governor Bill Richardson, Governor Brian Schweitzer, Mayor Gavin Newsom, and Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin – and celebrities like John Legend, Charles Barkley, and Louis Gossett Jr. took the opportunity to speak directly to the YouTube community and/or to talk about why they are nominating Obama (as did Congressman , pictured here). Their videos, and a whole lot more, including Senator Obama's acceptance speech, are available on our 2008 Conventions YouTube channel.

Along the 16th Street Mall, visitors stepped into our Google Maps voting booths to find how to register and where to cast their ballots with our US Voter Info Guide.

Our CEO, Eric Schmidt, participated in a townhall discussion moderated by Rachel Maddow on technology's role in modern politics, from the Macaca incident to the next administration.

Video Embed:

We even showcased Google Maps on a Jumbotron before Barack Obama's stadium speech in an effort to illustrate Americans' top concerns for 2008; Google App Engine helped us host the mashup and manage thousands of incoming text messages. See the live map on the DNC website.

And to celebrate the closing night of the convention, we partnered with Vanity Fair to throw a party for press, celebrities, political leaders and executives in attendance. Our guests challenged each other to tennis matches in the "hallway of Wiis" and performed their favorite hits in the Rock Band room.

218 This week we're in St. Paul for the Republican National Convention, which of course has taken a muted tone in the face of Hurricane Gustav. Thankfully, so far the damage has been less than predicted and the convention proceedings may be able to resume. In the meantime, delegates are using YouTube to upload messages of support via video, Google Earth to track Gustav's progress, and Google Maps to display evacuation sites and hurricane forecasts. And this week we're excited to be able to stream the convention live each night on Google News, thanks to Ustream, the official streaming provider of the RNC. When we're not showing live coverage, we'll have highlights from the previous day's activities.

219 BIZMOLOGY Y BUSINESS INSIGHTS AND OPINIONS FROM HOOVER’S EDITORS:

Politicos and techies mingle in the 2008 presidential election process

by Jeff Dorsch

August 29th, 2008

Money and politics go together like cookies and milk, unless you’re apolitical or lactose intolerant. As the Democratic National Convention winds up in Denver and the scene moves on to the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, technology titans are making their presence felt on the national political scene.

The most obvious manifestation of the phenomenon is the Big Tent , which actually is a big tent (8,000 sq. ft.) put up for the use of bloggers and others at the two conventions. The amenity- packed facility is sponsored by Google and YouTube , along with Digg . Bloggers were first credentialed at the national conventions four years ago, and now they’re ubiquitous at the political confabs, with many of them deliberately choosing to stay out of the convention halls (where the speeches and activities are meant for the consumption of TV cameras) and to follow the action everywhere else in the vicinity.

The high-tech industry steered clear of the Beltway for decades, feeling it didn’t need to indulge in grubby with Congress and the federal bureaucracy. A number of issues, however, have forced industry figures to get down and dirty with the likes of AARP , the National Association of Manufacturers , the National Rifle Association , and the US Chamber of Commerce in making sure their interests are represented on Capitol Hill and elsewhere in the District of Columbia. Intel , for example, spent $500,000 in Q2 for lobbying the Department of Commerce , the Federal Trade Commission , and other agencies.

One hot-button topic is Net neutrality . Online content providers, such as Yahoo! and YouTube, are vitally interested in making sure their users are unfettered by any restrictions on access and downloading, while Internet service providers, such as Comcast and Verizon , see some customers of theirs engaging in high-volume swapping of files and want government regulators to let them limit those customers or even to charge them more.

The R&D tax credit is another issue that raises the blood pressure of executives in technology, especially those in the semiconductor industry. Chip makers typically spend about 20% of their annual sales on R&D expenditures. Any hint that Congress is or isn’t going to revive the R&D tax credit brings this corporate pocketbook issue to the fore.

The conventional wisdom is that techies tend to vote Democratic . It ain’t necessarily so . There is a very strong libertarian bent to the industry. Electronics engineers and executives may not vote in large numbers for candidates of the Libertarian Party , but their limited-government philosophy attracts them to candidates like Representative Ron Paul , who was running for president among the Republican field this year and was the Libertarian nominee for president in 1988.

220 Tech CEOs, in their personal economic interest, are often closest to the Republican Party . Meg Whitman , the former CEO of eBay , is reportedly considering running as a Republican for in 2010. , the controversial ex-CEO of Hewlett-Packard , is a business and economic adviser to Senator John McCain and is rumored to be on the inside track for a top post in a McCain Administration, perhaps even as vice president.

Whitman and other high-tech execs hedge their political bets by giving to both Democratic and Republican politicians, pragmatically recognizing that one party isn’t going to control the White House or the Congress forever. Regardless of who wins the election in November, the technology industry will be pressing its case with donations and lobbying in 2009 and beyond.

221

Digg town hall: Local news options, forums on the way?

by Caroline McCarthy

August 28, 2008

Digg has always made its message clear: it's not social news, it's democracy.

The company's executive team--founder Kevin Rose, and CEO Jay Adelson-- thumbed their noses at the DMCA complaint they received when users "dugg" a crack code for the now-defunct HD DVD technology. They also decided to connect with their users through "town hall" events Webcast live four times a year. So it's perhaps fitting that for the company's third quarterly town hall, Rose and Adelson set up shop in the "Big Tent" new-media hall at the Democratic National Convention in Denver. (Digg is a "Big Tent" sponsor.)

It'll be following up with an event held in partnership with MySpace at the Republican National Convention. The company also kicked off a "Digg Dialogg" event series, in which executives ask users' questions to prominent guests. Adelson, who called it a "perfect alignment of Digg and elections," interviewed House of Representative Speaker Nancy Pelosi in the inaugural interview, in partnership with CNN's iReport.

"They're your raw questions," Rose said, his characteristic mop-top haircut forsaken in favor of a buzz cut. "They were completely unfiltered."

To be fair, Digg owes a lot to politics--its energetic base of news hounds loves election coverage, and the national elections inevitably pull a lot of traffic to the site.

The questions were largely technical ones that dealt with the minutiae of Digg culture: Adelson said that the "shout" communication system will be tweaked to limit spamming and a private message system is on the way, better technology to flag duplicate stories ("I hate this!" Rose said on the problem with duplicate story submissions) is coming this fall, and Digg is working on a way to let members flag stories as "not safe for work."

Most of Rose and Adelson's answers, which they breezed through more quickly than with previous town halls due to time constraints on the Denver stage, fell into the niche of "good suggestion, and we're working on it."

One question asked if Digg could institute a forum for members. That was a more contentious point for the company executives. "We do want to have forums for our

222 users to communicate and support each other," Adelson said, but added that he's working on matching up the authentication system so that it uses the same credentials as Digg itself rather than an external forum system.

Rose was less enthusiastic. "Everyone has forums and it's always the same crap," he said. "It doesn't necessarily mean that they're helping elevate the good questions and helping the conversation come through."

A few genuinely good ideas came up: one question suggested "geotagging" for stories to group them into local news stories, something that could make the site legitimately compete with sites like Outside.in and city blog networks like Gothamist. "Yes," Rose said. "We've thought about this as well and it would be really cool if we could start to group different events around you." Adelson added that Digg has "a few projects on the way...think 2009, realistically, for some of this stuff."

Despite the somewhat dull nature of many technical questions about recommendation engines and comment improvement, Adelson and Rose insisted that those are the questions they want to hear because it's where Digg users can really make a difference in shaping the site's direction. "It's really important to know what you guys are thinking. It keeps us honest," Adelson said.

The next Digg town hall will be held on November 6--two days after the U.S. presidential election. Its next meetup, however, will be off American shores: Rose will be taping his podcast live from on October 10.

223

Product marketing joins politics at Democratic convention

by Stephanie Condon

August 27, 2008

DENVER--Political conventions nowadays are as much about capitalism as they are about politics.

AT&T vendors here pass out Chapstick and cup cozies with the company's logo. Delegates wander around in CNN caps. Lanyards for official credentials sport a Qwest logo. Coca Cola tote bags are carried into the Pepsi Center, while entrepreneurs hand out free samples (or sometimes try to sell them).

The Big Tent, where bloggers are spending most of their time, has become a veritable trade show of tech-oriented products and businesses.

Kary and Gerhard Rivera are Denver locals--they're both spouses and business partners--who are taking advantage of the convention events to promote their site Fling It Girl, which launched last month. Kary describes the site as a kind of "Digg for women." Formatted like Digg, the site lets users submit, vote for, and bury items items from the Web. Most "flung" items are female- oriented, including fashion and home decor, though the site does have a "guy stuff" section.

"It's exciting to have the convention here in Denver," Kary Rivera said. "It's a right-place, right- time sort of thing, so we wanted to take advantage of it the best we can."

The Riveras were asked to volunteer at the Electric Vehicle Rolling Showcase but ended up at the Big Tent on Tuesday. Along with meeting the founders of Daily Kos and Colorado Rep. Jared Polis, the couple ran into actress Daryl Hannah for a second time this week and gave the celebrity a Fling It Girl tank top.

"Fling it Girl is not a political site at all, so we looked at this as more of an opportunity for us to shake hands and see faces," Kary Rivera said.

Andrew Hunter was at the Big Tent on Tuesday to promote the the Change Ring, a product capitalizing on Barack Obama's popularity and his theme of "change." The Change Ring is a key ring or pendant modeled after Delta, the mathematical symbol for change.

The key ring comes with key retrieval system called Boomering SMS. A dog tag with a serial number is attached to each ring, and the owner of ring is supposed to enter the serial number, along with their cell phone number and e-mail address, onto the company Web site. The dog tag has instructions for anyone who finds a lost Change Ring to text the Boomering SMS code to the company's short-code. Change Ring then bridges communication between the owner and the finder of the key ring.

224 Two Change Rings can be purchased for $19.99, and a portion of the cost goes to Obama's campaign, and a portion goes to American charities.

While start-ups were on display in the Big Tent, the delegates are benefiting from the eagerness of corporate America to participate in the political process.

Florida delegate Amy Mercado on Wednesday carried around an Oracle tote bag. The Silicon Valley company, along with Florida Power and Light and Disney, is sponsoring Florida's efforts to send a "green delegation" to Denver.

The delegates from Washington state were treated to a reception hosted by Microsoft.

"There's lots of companies here pitching themselves and their businesses to their state delegations," said Washington delegate Patrick Gunning. "Most of (the delegates) are pretty influential in their home states."

His fellow Washington delegate, Caitlin Ormsby, said she didn't mind the corporate presence, "as long as they're on board with Democratic policies."

Gunning said it was important for the Democratic party to have a strong relationship with large employers like Microsoft, but added, "It's definitely a big party for corporate America here, and I'm not entirely sure what to think of it."

225

Democratic bloggers shun official digs for 'Big Tent'

by Stephanie Condon

August 26, 2008

DENVER--If you want to find bloggers here at the Democratic convention, don't look inside the Pepsi Center, an island of concrete surrounded by fences, barriers, checkpoints, and heavily armed police in helmets and black uniforms.

Many have camped out in a more welcoming place: the so-called Big Tent, located a few blocks outside the security perimeter where bloggers can pay $100 for a place to work for the week. There are free smoothies and massages downstairs (thanks to Google) and free lectures upstairs (courtesy of left-leaning activists hoping to rally the faithful).

It is true that the Democratic National Convention Committee handed credentials to a record number of bloggers for the Denver convention this week, but more nevertheless appear to have gathered at the Big Tent. Adding to the lure of the unofficial venue is that the workspace's location on Wynkoop Street is around the corner from a multitude of restaurants and private parties, including a massive Tuesday reception organized by Emily's List, a late-night jazz festival, and an AT&T-sponsored brewery bash.

A front-row seat Sara Robinson, a self-described progressive blogger from Vancouver, B.C., received credentials for both the Pepsi Center and the Big Tent. Her DNCC credentials got her prime seating during Michelle Obama's speech on Monday night.

"I was in front of the front row last night," said Robinson, who's blogging for Campaign for America's Future, a Washington-based advocacy group, and liberal lifestyle site Group News Blog. "There was nothing between me and the Secret Service."

The DNCC designated an official "blogger lounge" inside the Pepsi Center--the location for convention events except for Barack Obama's speech on Thursday--with access to televisions and other technology resources. The credentialed bloggers also have access to the convention floor, press briefing areas, caucus meetings, filing centers, and other auxiliary events open to members of the media.

Even though she said she appreciated her floor access, which is sometimes difficult to obtain for mainstream media, Robinson was less than impressed with the blogger lounge.

226 "Last night, before I went to the floor, I saw that there's a press room--it's lovely, it's air conditioned," she said. "Then there's a little room off to the side, and it's dark and it's dank. We're clearly not allowed to mingle with the big kids. I'm hoping in 2008 or 2012 we'll get past that."

The Big Tent is not without its flaws, though. The 8,000-square-foot, two-story structure is notably lacking efficient air conditioning, Robinson pointed out.

"Other than that, it's amazing we have our own space," she said. "Physical presence counts for a lot. In 2004 there were bloggers, but we didn't have a space. What it says is, 'We are here, we are present, in a way we haven't been before.'

"It's an interesting time to meet my fellow bloggers and learn a lot more about how the sausage gets made," she continued. "It's fun to be part of a community that's merging into its own in the progressive community."

Other international bloggers, including Panayotis Vryonis from , joined Robinson in the Big Tent. As a social media consultant for a progressive party from his country, Vryonis said this "was a good opportunity to see what's going on."

"You guys are a couple years ahead of us as far as the use of Internet in politics," he said.

Vryonis said that with only about 25 percent of Greek households connected to the Internet, campaigning online in Greece is not as effective as in the United States.

"With raising money, people have to be used to using their credit card online or used to giving their e-mail out," he said. "It's not about technology, per se-- it's more a cultural thing."

Vryonis said he paid his own way for the trip to Denver to write about it firsthand on his blog Vrypan.net.

"I'm not making money out of (blogging), but it's not exactly a hobby since it helps my job," he said.

Through his connections in the Greek-American community, Vryonis was able to get DNCC credentials as well.

"The access to the convention center is the most important thing, if you want to be able to say you attended," he said, "but to be honest, (the Big Tent) is much better."

The outcome of the U.S. election will influence not only Greek politics but European politics in general, Vyronis said. "There's an Obama-mania in Greece and Europe in general," he said. "The media loves him, and bloggers love him too, since he's used the Internet in his campaign. I hope he keeps them mesmerized after the election if he gets elected, when it really becomes difficult."

The view from Alabama Larisa Thomason, a blogger for Left in Alabama, initially supported , who has recently been embroiled in a scandal involving him cheating on his wife.

227 "I spent a week in Iowa with my 14-year-old daughter, freezing our butts off for John Edwards," she said. "His platform was the most progressive."

"I live in a place in Alabama where I can't get cell phone access from my house, and I can't use wireless Internet because we don't have broadband out in the country," Thomason said. "Edwards spoke to those issues. When Edwards pulled out, I just kind of checked out and waited to see" who the Democratic candidate would be.

A Web content writer by profession, Thomason blogs voluntarily for Left in Alabama and paid her own way to Denver, along with three other Left in Alabama bloggers. They held an online fundraiser for the trip on their site, which has seen its readership grow from a couple hundred readers per day last winter to about 1,000 readers a day. The site raised enough money to cover the $100 Big Tent fee for all four bloggers.

"That was really nice because it made us realize people actually care what we're writing and want to hear from us," she said.

Left in Alabama also received DNCC credentials and was offered media housing by the DNCC.

"The room we were offered was $45 a night, so we jokingly referred to it as the 'blogger crackhouse,'" Thomason said.

Thomason opted to share a hotel room with a friend who is an Alabama delegate.

"One of our bloggers is staying at (the media housing), though, and he said it's basic economy lodging, and we would've been fine there," she said.

Left in Alabama received further credibility from the Library of Congress, which recently asked to use the blog for an archive of 2008 online political coverage it is creating, Thomason said.

The blogger has also been able to support the local media. The Huntsville Times of Alabama asked Thomason to contribute coverage of the Alabama delegation to the paper.

She has used her trip for more than just convention coverage, though. She arrived in Colorado early to take a detour to the Focus on the Family headquarters in nearby Colorado Springs, so she could write a "snarky" blog post about the conservative group.

Thomason also admitted she missed the first night of convention speeches on Monday.

"I wish I could tell you I was a good political blogger," she said. "I was actually across town eating Ethiopian food. You don't get it in Alabama!"

228

Bloggers Stake Convention Claim in 'Big Tent'

by Steve Myers

August 26, 2008

DENVER -- The Democratic National Convention Committee issued credentials to 124 bloggers this year -- a record number, but still just a fraction of the estimated 10,000 or so media camped out in four enormous tents in the parking lot of the Pepsi Center.

But the real action is several blocks away in the two-story " Big Tent ," located in a downtown historic district with plenty of nightlife. There, several hundred bloggers (of 3,000 who applied) have paid $100 each for a spot at a table or couch, wireless Internet, the chance of electricity (there's never enough) two meals a day and all the free microbrewed beer they want.

This week, this is the national headquarters of the blogosphere. All day and into the night, these 500 or so bloggers pore over their laptops, watch television and produce news and commentary that is independent, but not entirely divorced from, the mainstream/legacy/establishment media. (There are several terms, but they all mean the same thing: the companies with the printing presses and the satellite trucks.)

"We're in a very different place than we were in 2004. No longer is it bloggers vs. old media," said Arianna Huffington in an interview. With major news organizations blogging, and bloggers doing original reporting, "it's much more of a convergence."

Huffington Post , of course, is well represented here. In the building next to the Big Tent, the Huffington Oasis is a chill, dark sanctuary where a man and a woman practice AcroYoga , two women offer free massages next door and you can't help but feel like the uncoolest person in the room.

Back in the tent, the pulse rates are noticeably higher. It's a mix of a newsroom on Election Night and an industry conference.

All day in the front room, Google shows off its election resources : a nascent (it only works in a few states) addition to Google Maps that enables users to plug in their address and find out where to vote, a mobile elections site and a version of its Reader that shows what the candidates are reading. There are YouTube Upload Stations positioned around the tent.

On the second floor, Digg sponsors panels on liberal causes, politics and media . On Monday, Ted Sorenson spoke on JFK and Jonathan Alter on FDR. Huffington, John Podesta, Paul Krugman and David Sirota talked about what it will take to win the election and how to extend the reach of the liberal media (they called it progressive).

229

Speakers criticized the mainstream media, but there wasn't a tone of bitterness at the power those companies wield. The model practiced in this headquarters has its own success stories, such as Daily Kos (a lead sponsor of the tent) and Talking Points Memo . Rather than criticize the model they don't think works, they focused on doing what they do, better.

And there seem to be innumerable variations of how they do their work and report this political convention. While everyone here is a blogger, it quickly becomes clear how un- descriptive the term is. One blogger described himself as part of the "commentariat." Another man, an ex-reporter from Hawaii, does the kind of shoe-leather reporting that any reporter should do, but he doesn't see enough of. A young J-school grad holds titles with a few organizations, doing a mix of commentary, advocacy and freelance reporting.

Gregg Levine, the New York-based member of the "commentariat," doesn't claim that he does journalism when he blogs for The Seminal , a politics blog based in Washington, D.C., with more than 100,000 unique visitors a month. After work, and often all night, he trolls the Web, reading and deconstructing. He hits high gear after midnight, when newspapers post their stories for the next day.

Here's how he reported on the first day of the convention: He got up and hopped on a shuttle, where he saw a woman wearing buttons for both Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton. Then he got off the shuttle and saw a copy of USA Today at a newsstand (an interesting feature of the convention scene is that people actually stand on street corners hawking newspapers).

The front-page story was about Clinton supporters being reluctant to get behind Obama. (The New York Times also reported this , and it was the main topic of conversation on Fox News on Monday morning.)

Levine didn't buy it. He said he hasn't met anyone in Denver who simply refuses to support Obama. It was another example of the national media beating a drum that simply didn't resonate with his experience. So he showed up to the Big Tent and started working on a post about it .

"Bloggers are now vital to the political debate the way pamphleteers were in the colonial period and the early days of the republic," said Jonathan Alter, describing them as "Thomas Paine-style pamphleteers with a better distribution network."

And they're having a bigger impact this year than ever, said Alter, a Newsweek senior editor. He said he thinks that has everything to do with the ubiquity of online video -- the ease of producing it, sharing it and mashing it up into something else.

The Democrats issued credentials to 124 blogs for the convention, which it says is a record (about 30 were issued in 2004). But some 500 hold credentials for the Big Tent, according to Aaron Nelson of Alliance for Sustainable Colorado, one of the lead sponsors of the facility.

Alliance for Sustainable Colorado , which has 33 nonprofits and organizations headquartered in its building next to the Big Tent, is a natural fit for bloggers known for their mix of liberal

230 advocacy, commentary, media criticism and reporting. (The plastic beer cups at the Big Tent are compostable; the urinals next door are flush-free .)

Nelson said the goal is to create a figurative "big tent," with people of all political persuasions. He pitched a welcoming atmosphere, saying a blogger from the conservative Heritage Foundation was using the space. (That blogger appears to be in the minority, considering the applause that erupted Monday night when U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy took the stage at the convention.)

Yet some of the work being done by these bloggers seems decidedly old-school. Ian Lind started blogging back in 2001, though at the time he didn't know that was what he was doing. His topic: the impending sale of his newspaper, the Honolulu Star-Bulletin . He said there was some back-and-forth about whether he could blog about what was going on at the paper, and in the end he lost his job.

Now he blogs on his site, iLind.net , which has about 8,550 unique visitors a month, and writes for an alternative weekly. (Essential to this arrangement, he said, is his wife's position as a tenured professor.) "I enjoy finding stories the dailies haven't written yet," he said. He searches online databases of government contracts, campaign finance reports and ethics disclosures. It's the kind of work he thinks newspaper reporters should be doing, but he doesn't see enough of.

He fills in the holes in local media coverage, opting to explain to his readers what a local ordinance says rather than quoting dueling perspectives. He avoids hot-button issues, tries not to write posts fueled by emotion or anger, and admits that his traffic probably suffers as a result.

"I think we need less rhetoric and more facts that lead people to conclusions," he said.

Like so many bloggers, he paid his own way to Denver, at a cost of about $2,200. This week, he is focusing on "both less and more than the spectacle." He went to Hawaii's delegate breakfast and described some of the last-minute rules of what folks could bring to the convention hall. He described some of the street demonstrations. He wrote about the convention's corporate sponsors.

He is not covering public policy or political issues. The Honolulu papers are here, he said, and that's what they do. "My philosophy has always been, don't compete on stories where they're strong. Compete where they're weak."

CORRECTION: The original version of this article had an incorrect figure for iLind.net's Web traffic.

231

Can You Digg the Democratic and Republican Conventions?

by Chris Crum

August 22, 2008

Katie Couric isn't the only vessel connecting Digg to the U.S. presidential candidates . On Digg the Blog, Jay Adelson announced that Digg will be joining Google, and other organizations in sponsoring the "new media center" at the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

"T he Big Tent will be a place for bloggers, new media journalists and the public to record their experiences from the convention and to hear from top newsmakers on the Digg Stage," says Adelson.

Don't take this as a one-sided agenda from Digg. They will also have a presence at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, alongside MySpace and Rock the Vote, sponsoring an event with the Impact Film Festival .

Digg has gotten into more of a political groove since launching the " Digg the Candidates " part of their site last year. This week, Katie Couric herself called on Digg and YouTube users to submit questions for her to ask at the Democratic National Convention. I suggest reading Jason Miller's history lesson for more on that.

It really is interesting to see how social media is bringing people closer to the government. Adelson promises that Digg will be taking plenty of videos and photos from both conventions and posting them on the site.

232

Bloggers find a home in DNC

by Brandon Gee

August 26, 2008

DENVER — There are some who hold to two truths about the Democratic National Convention. One: it’s nothing more than a big party. And two: that all events of any significance take place far away from the Pepsi Center and official convention proceedings.

There’s a place on 15th and Wynkoop streets that’s trying to prove both.

Routt County appraiser Tina Segler is among several volunteers working at The Big Tent, a first-of-its-kind dedicated workspace for bloggers and new media journalists at the Democratic National Convention. The Big Tent is a joint effort of Alliance for Sustainable Colorado, DailyKos and ProgressNow. Its sponsors include Google and YouTube.

In addition to workspace for its 300 credentialed participants, the two-story, 8,000- square-foot facility includes a stage for speakers and panel discussions, a lounge, massages and a New Belgium beer garden.

“There’s beer,” Segler said. “A lot of beer.”

As he nabbed one for himself, Christian Avard said he’s never seen the red carpet rolled out like this for the new media.

“This is the first time that I know of,” said Avard, a Vermont blogger and newspaper reporter. “I think the progressive blogosphere has made its mark. … The scene here is just so much more fun (than at the Pepsi Center). It’s so much more common man-ish.”

The premise of The Big Tent excited Segler, who was searching for additional volunteer opportunities after learning that she would be working only one day as a volunteer for the convention itself. Segler is excited about witnessing some of The Big Tent’s celebrity speaker lineup, which includes Brad Pitt and Dan Rather.

“I was born a Democrat,” Segler said. “And I’ve been working for the party my whole life. … When I stumbled upon this, I was like, ‘Wow.’”

233 Inside The Big Tent, Segler must be more tight-lipped about her politics at an event that touts itself as not only nonprofit, but also nonpartisan.

“This isn’t a place to grandstand,” Segler said.

While she is most excited about presumptive nominee Barack Obama’s acceptance speech before 75,000 people at Invesco Field on Thursday, Segler is more than happy to spend the early part of her week several blocks away from the convention proper.

“It’s about the other stuff going on,” saig Segler, who also hopes to catch a protest rally or two. “It’s not about what’s going on in the Pepsi Center. Everyone knows that.”

234 New West

Blogging the “Big Tent”

by Amy Brouillette

August 25, 2008

Proof “new media” has come of age, scores of bloggers and citizen journalists at this year’s Democratic Convention are operating from their very own air-conditioned command center in the sprawling, 8,000-square foot media complex in LoDo, a.k.a. ” The Big Tent. ” A joint, non- profit project of the Alliance for Sustainable Colorado , Daily Kos and ProgressNow, the Big Tent houses an all-green, state-of-the art new-media lounge, and a Digg stage with a host of speakers (live steaming here: http://www.ustream.tv/ ).

Inside blogger-central late Monday afternoon, the place is abuzz with cyberjournalists and new media folk big and small, from celeb online journalist Markos Moulitsas, founder of Daily Kos, to Arianna Huffington, co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post , to a slew of lone citizen journalists who managed to scare up a coveted Big Tent press pass. With more than 3,000 applicants vying for 500 passes, blogger credentials were an especially difficult score— even those in the “mainstream press” with Big Tent credentials are banned from venturing into blogger turf (without an escort). Four years since a few rogue bloggers debuted at the DNC in Boston, bloggers today have become the darlings of the Convention’s media scene— refreshingly hip and energetic next to the heavy-footed old-school press, saddled by notepad and pen.

A notable and dominant addition to the scene is the suit-and-tie blogger, a creature easily mistaken for an investment banker or business mogul, and just another sign cyberjournalism has indeed gone mainstream.

235

Google's Two-Story "Tent" Hosting Bloggers at Denver DNC

by Dave Maddox

August 24, 2008

Big Tent to Be Home for Alternative Media in Denver's LoDo Near DNC

DENVER, Colorado -- Bloggers and other alternative journalists will be populating the hive of activity that is going up on Wynkoop Street in Denver's cool LoDo (Lower Downtown) district, just down the street from the famous Tattered Cover bookstore. Word has been going around for months about Google's "two story tent," with local alternative and indy journalists trying to picture what such a thing would be like.

We don't have to wait any longer, and here is one of the first pictures. Actually, it does seem to be a little sturdier than a tent. And except for those of us who take our "geek toys" camping, it's the most high-tech tent most people have seen. With MSNBC setting up a facility for broadcasts of "Hardball" down the street, it will be interesting to compare mainstream versus alternative journalism's idea of an "on location" facility. The two big questions: Which is more high-tech and effective, and which is cooler? We are talking Google, after all.

The call went out months ago and spaces in the tent were filled quickly for a token payment (around $100). The tent has WiFi, limited power, yoga, massages, smoothies and live entertainment. The invocation will be given by Michael Beckwith, a minister who appeared as one of the experts in "The Secret." Food and drinks are included, and the 8,000-square foot space is expected to host a large number of formal and informal discussions amongst the alternative media, non-profit leaders, and thinkers and movers and shakers of all kinds.

Despite the temporary nature of the building, the website indicates that the Big Tent will be ADA-accessible, so no matter how "differently abled" participants are, there will be a place for them in the tent. Baby changing will also be available.

236

Google likes its bloggers refreshed

by Siri Agrell

August 27, 2008

Dropped by The Big Tent, the blogger complex sponsored by Google. It should come as no surprise that Google has pimped the place out. In addition to wireless, food buffets and the company of fellow nerds, bloggers working here have an unlimited smoothie bar (they served 1,400 yesterday) and access to free massages.

237

An Event Made for Movers, Shakers and Bloggers

by Michael Settle

August 27, 2008

APART from anything else, the DNC 08 will be remembered for how political conferences will from now on be covered; it will be the first true cyber-convention, a blogger's heaven.

As well as the 15,000 accredited journalists, there will be thousands more unaccredited. The blogoshpere will never have witnessed so much political traffic.

Google, the internet giant, has set up a huge parallel convention site next to the Pepsi Center called the Big Tent for those not lucky enough to be accredited. For GBP50, journalists and bloggers get wi-fi plus food and drink for the entire length of the convention. A kiosk has been set up so people can upload videos on to YouTube, owned by Google.

MySpace, part of 's News Corp, plans a number of events around the convention, including MySpace cafes where people can go online and chitchat about what's happening in the main forum. Barack Obama has nearly 500,000 friends on MySpace.

Online news sites like Politico, which did not exist four years ago, will have 40 journalists at the DNC. Another prominent internet news outlet, the Huffington Post, apart from its usual web service, will also be providing its own "Oasis" next to the Big Tent where people can unwind with smoothies and massages.

The DNC HQ itself boasts that its gathering by the Rocky Mountains will be "technologically savvy". As well as the first live high definition "gavel-to-gavel" convention proceedings via DemConvention. com, there will be more than 120 credentialed blogs - a record for a national political convention, boast the party chiefs, and more than three times the number of blogs at the 2004 convention.

There will also be the first Spanish language simulcast, again available online, to cater for the 35million-plus Amer icans whose first language is Spanish.

There will be a series of daily webcasts by campaign and convention insiders with each show providing behind-the-scenes information not available anywhere else.

At the weekend, Obama used text messaging to alert his party's supporters as to who his running mate would be. On the night of his big set-piece speech on Thursday, when accepting the nomination Obama will ask the 75,000 audience to use their mobile phones simultaneously to tell friends to tune in to watch his speech.

While Obama and the Democrats have embraced the new technology, the Republicans and their choice John McCain, in particular, appear to be lagging behind a little. While the party uses the web to churn out its message just like the Democrats, it does not use text messaging. Meantime, the 72- year-old McCain is said to use the internet rarely.

238 If the web does have an influence on how Americans view the race to the White House, it seems Obama and the Democrats could already have a head start.

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