Progressives Have a Big Tent at the Dem Convention
Submitted by TrueMeckDem on Mon, 07/14/2008 - 7:30am
Progressives Have a Big Tent at the Dem Convention
By Steven Rosenfeld, AlterNet. Posted July 14, 2008.
A tent for 800 journalists, bloggers and activists will be set up at Denver's Democratic Convention site.
Few activities are more filled with political insiders than national political party conventions. But this August in Denver, a coalition of progressive groups hopes to broaden the coverage and conversation surrounding the Democratic Convention by hosting 800 bloggers, nonprofit leaders and independent journalists.
ProgressNow.org, the largest online community in Colorado; the Alliance for a Sustainable Colorado; and Daily Kos will put up a big tent next to the Pepsi Center, where writers, bloggers and activists can cover the convention and showcase a progressive agenda.
"There are two things we want to accomplish," said Bobby Clark, ProgressNow deputy director. "The first is to give access to people who are often left out, who don't have a seat at the table. This is not just bloggers, but independent media and nonprofit leaders. It's about access."
"We also want to broaden the conversation during the convention," he said. "We will be hit over the head by the mainstream media with political process stories. Lost in that coverage will be the fact that 48 million Americans don't have health insurance and issues like that. So we want to generate content that can get out that week."
An estimated 15,000 members of the media are expected to go to Denver, with approximately 5,000 receiving credentials to attend the official proceedings. Only 125 bloggers will be credentialed.
The solution is called "the big tent," a 9,000-square-foot, two-story, fully wired platform for alternative coverage and a stage for newsmakers that will be a counterpoint to the usual convention activities such as the adoption of the party platform; nomination of both a vice presidential and presidential candidate; speeches and rallying of campaign workers by party leaders; and a not-insignificant amount of elbow-rubbing by political insiders.
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Can I ask a silly question...
But what does this all serve? I mean having bloggers at the DNC Convention...exactly what is there worth reporting?
I don't mean to be poo-pooing anything, honestly. I'll be at convention, it'll be great, yea! Yea! But this "victory" that bloggers will be covering it...I mean, exactly what's the "get"? Posts about happy Obama folks, sad Clinton folks, and dedicated Dems? As much as I hope there IS real drama at the convention, my pragmatic side says there won't be anything particularly grand, and it'll run like clockwork.
And including a progressive agenda? Will the bloggers BE on the Platform Committee (which no one really reads the platform, by the way)? Will they be making speeches on national TV? I'm not sure how their "coverage" creates a "progressive agenda." Admittedly, if they were NOT there, there would be even LESS chance, certainly. But what does this actually accomplish?
Or is it the mystical historical nature of the happening? I mean, I can get that. But that's for the people there...not sure how a blogger covering the stadium speech can bring the "magic" through the Intertubes.
I'm honestly just not "getting it" so please explain it to me, sorry.
Thanks!
Sigh
You really have been contrary of late. I'm not used to seeing you so negative, but the big deal is that knowledge is power. We will offer a perspective on the action and inaction that the MSM will ignore. Each state and territory has its own blogger assigned which means more personal news for the folks back home who are interested.
It makes the process more accessible to more people and it offers news of the event from many more points of view. Is that progressive enough for you?
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