Liberal Bloggers Reaching Out to Major Media

The New York Times reports Liberal Bloggers Reaching Out to Major Media

Even as online pundits criticize traditional news organizations as slow, biased and technologically challenged, a group of bloggers is trying to use old-fashioned telephone conference calls to share their ideas with newspaper and television journalists.

The bloggers, who describe themselves as liberal or progressive, say the conference calls are intended to counter what they regard as the much stronger influence of conservative pundits online. Bob Fertik, president of Democrats.com, the host of the two calls so far, views them as a step toward getting their reports out to mainstream news organizations.

The Extreme Left Wing Bloggers realize they cannot do as good a job as the Conservative pundents, so they want to feed their drivel to the Extreme Left Wing Main Stream Media

Traditional journalists largely ignored bloggers when they emerged, but have begun to take note of their influence as online commentators assumed roles in news stories like the flaws in the report by "60 Minutes Wednesday" on President Bush's National Guard service and the comments by the former CNN chief, Eason Jordan, about the military's treatment of journalists in Iraq.

They are talking to the wrong bloggers. Those two news stories were reported by Conservative bloggers.

Mr. Fertik maintains that the blurring of boundaries has benefited left-wing bloggers less than their adversaries on the right, saying that reports posted on conservative blogs more easily make the jump to the main news media. "The way we perceive it," he said, "is that right-wing bloggers are able to invent stories, get them out on Drudge, get them on Rush Limbaugh, get them on Fox, and pretty soon that spills over into the mainstream media. We, the progressives, we don't have that kind of network to work with."

Do you mean more people listen to Rush Limbaugh than Air America, and more people trust Drudge than DailyKOS, and more watch Fox than CNN??? Oh, yes, you are right. But then the Left has ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, MSNBC, NPR, PBS, New York Times, Washington Post, etc. etc. etc.

Deacon said newspapers should pay someone to read political blogs, just as they pay people to watch bad movies

Jeff Jarvis said They have no idea whether media actually called in. I've not seen any stories about the call. So there's no way to know whether this is a success. Yet The Times devotes considerable attention to it on the front of the business section. The larger story is a good and interesting one: Are conservatives doing a better job than liberals at using the blogosphere to investigate and spread stories and get them into mainstream media?

Paul @Wizbang said The bridge is already there.... It's called a web browser. If the lefty bloggers have anything worth saying, the message would get out, just like it does from the right. After the Tsunami, a blog that was only like 3 weeks old became the #1 blog in the blogosphere in just a few hours because he linked the videos of the event. When there is content, the blogosphere is breathtakingly efficient. What is really going on here is that liberals don't have a message and haven't had the facts on their side. The right-wing blogs have had a stronger influence because we have had the facts on our side!

Matt said Now, after several victories by the right wing bloggers to move the news and Bush's reelection, liberal bloggers feel emasculated because they've just not been as effective/influential as the conservative bloggers. They've definitely tried. While conservative bloggers can say they helped take down Dan Rather and Eason Jordan, the liberal bloggers went after an unknown pseudo-journalist (who no one had heard of before) reporting for an online publication (which frankly, few people read). Now the liberal blogs want to move from "people-powered" to "media-powered"... just because they want some time in the spotlight. It is hard to blame them for desiring media attention—bloggers want recognition for what they do. But recognition by the media does not necessary increase their influence. Truth be told, liberal blogs seem to enjoy most of the media attention. It's hard to find story about blogs that doesn't mention Daily Kos or Wonkette. It's never occurred to the liberal blogosphere that maybe the reason they've lacked influence is because they've lacked substance, or as Paul says, "right-wing blogs have had a stronger influence because we have had the facts on our side!"

WizBang said At the end of the day it comes down to content. If the lefty blogs were on the right side of the facts, the media would find them. Rather than trying to manipulate the media thru conference calls, why don't the liberal bloggers just get on their blogs and find something impressive to say? But Noooo... Rather than compete in the arena of ideas, they want a "media subsidy" to "level the playing field." They want affirmative action for boring bloggers.

JackLewis said That the MSM and Liberal bloggers would eagerly work together seems to whoosh right over the NYT's head, and proof of a Liberal bias. They focus more on the advances Conservative bloggers have made, assuming as Liberals so often do, that there must be some magic trick the Conservatives use (there is -- it's called logic, intelligence and truth).

NTP said .... much more useful content than a blog where the main topic is, say, how President Bush is evil and wants to keep every minority child from graduating high school.

Update 3/17 T. Bevan noted The public relations effort is being organized by a guy named Bob Fertik.... So who is Bob Fertik? He's a self-described "life-long progressive and Democratic Party activist" and co-founder of the web site Democrats.com. The only reason I recognized Fertik's name is because he was a behind-the-scenes player in reviving the Bush Texas Air National Guard story in early 2004 - which I wrote about here.