Brief & incomplete review of DNC bloggers

While the AP stated something to the effect that"without established rules for Web journalists, the convention staff has had to review each blogger to evaluate their qualifications, originality, readership and professionalism", others have said the anointed DNC bloggers are waaaayy white and waaaayyy male. We know all about those arguments of "qualifications" and "professionalism" here at Indy, but how about the bloggers' outlooks and analysis? Are they equally waaaayyy Dem? Let's have a peak at some of the DNC bloggers listed in today's New York Times special supplement on the DNC.Other than a few seemingly out-to-lunch or re-directed sites, this writer found:

http://talkleft.com:

"We're in! Blogger Alley is for real. We're high up on the 7th floor directly above the stage. The floor is still pretty empty. We have scored a desktop and we're sitting next to David who is the CEO of Technorati who is blogging for CNN--and Steve Olson who is blogging on Stakeholder for the DCCC.There's McDonalds and Dunkin Donuts stations downstairs if we get hungry. We've got our camera hooked up and our cell phone seems to be working.""Update: Jenny 8. Lee from the New York Times is here--she's great, so spirited. She's wearing orange fishnet stockings to match her escape hood. You can read her article about the bloggers in today's New York Times here."(right, let's move-on...as they say)

http://oxblog.blogspot.com/:

"Patrick Belton of Oxblog, an Oxford graduate student and self-described centrist who worked for Bill Bradley in 2000, sees the convention as "a wonderful time to take a snapshot of all different factions, who's on the rise and who's on the relative wane."(yuh)

http://librarian.net/dnc/:

(the chatty librarian; nice but...)

http://atrios.blogspot.com/:

(very commercial; where's the meat??; who cares about anonymity?)

http://www.dailykos.com/:

(Along w/all the ads a Dem reformer sez):
"Over the past year, I have moved from being a strong defender of the national Democratic Party, to being increasingly disillusioned....It's not just a bunch of bloggers screaming into the wind anymore. It's now famed Venture Capitalists and entrepreneurs like Andy Rappaport and the ridiculously deep pockets of others like George Soros. It's MoveOn and ACT (formed by pervious rivals from the labor and environmental movements), and dozens or hundreds of new organizations rushing to fill the void created by an ineffective party.This election is the last gasp of the old establishment, not because we the bloggers declare it, but because the smart money has cast its lot outside the party hierarchy."

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/:

(spends too much time in front of a monitor):

"On the streets of Boston, the police presence is palpable. But it's mainly street cops on the corners and stuff like that. I'm sure the souped-up security is there, probably in places I haven't been. But it hasn't been as visible as you might expect." (Say what? There's more heat on the street than citizens to arrest)

http://wonkette.com:

(reportedly blogging for MTV and talkin' trash to beat the band....substance? viscous fluids)

http://www.pacificviews.org/:

(carried Aljazeera's banner theft story, go girl!and covers things of interest)

That's it. I get a one out of eight, not including the lunch crowd. Of course there IS 30 of them and we trust at least one or two more are worth reading, yes? Please tell us yes.In any case, the DNC bloggers are the "human interest" buzz among the media corporados this time around, which may be both a good thing or a bogus thing depending on how one views it. To their credit, even some of the....how shall we say? lite bloggers? are quick to point out that they are NOT the story, the event is. Be that as it may, this blogger would just love to see more text about just who really does and does not qualify (and just exactly why) to be among the chosen high above the assembled masses, way inside the gates and fences, beyond the robo-cops and feds w/earpieces. There's nothing like a little self-examination to enhance one's diary, after all.

See also:http://indyblogs.protest.net/