Can you imagine Heritage only inviting Markos, Chris  and Max Sawicky?

And the irony of this comment? Not lost on me...

Please call Bud Gordon at the Brookings institution and politely insist that they include a real liberal blogger at their event. Here are the numbers: 202-797-6310, or 202-797-6105. Or send an email to Patrick Gavin pgavin@brookings.edu

Apparently they didn't want the egg on their faces to spoil.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record I'll suggest again: BlogPac ought to hold a dedicated fundraising effort with a revenue goal (a bat) so that it has some real capital to work with. People are much more likely to give their $10, $25 or more if it's for a dedicated purpose or goal -- it gives their $10 a larger sense of purpose.

Matt,

This is not only happening on the mass media level. There are serious inequities when it comes to the acknowledgement of left-wing and progressive women and minority bloggers within the blue blogosphere.

Here in NYC, Nichelle Stephens and I will host the first meetup of Brown Bloggers on April 10th. We have created this meetup and are talking with other black and latino bloggers across the nation; asking them to host the event in their areas.

http://www.culturekitchen.com/archives/002850.html

We are also working on hosting a similar series of events for women bloggers as well.

If you find it offensive that the Brookings could not summon the courage to call on Atrios or Digby to their panel, I find it even more appaling that within our so-called community of progressive bloggers, women and people of color are supposed to sit on the sidelines quietly and not complain about our lack of visibility or acknowledgement from the blue blogosphere.

This is not about preferential treatment. This is about strategic social networking.

There is no meritocracy within human groups --those who succeed do so because they have access to resources and/or the networks that will ultimately purvey them with what they need to sustain their activities. Traffic, visibility and acknowldgement are three resources a lot of women and minority bloggers, good writers and articlulate speakers, are lacking. That the usual 4 or 5 left-wing bloggers are always mentioned is preposterous. That Wonkette is even considered a progressive woman blogger is outright indecent.

But that Atrios or Kos will not pull an Intapundit on the blue blogosphere on a regular basis is telling of the problems of strategic linking and networking within the left. They just don't get that Republicans won because they are more diverse and more willing to spread resources across spheres of influence than the Democrats. So let me put it this way : The blue blogosphere has less than a year to adopt the social networking practices the Republicans have so successfully adopted through email lists, forums, websites and now blogs if we want to spread the blue across the Senate, Congress and states governorships and legislatures.

The countdown to 2006 is on. Get on with the program; because Atrios and Kos alone are not going to win anybody any elections --they already proved that in 2004.

Conservative bloggers have the benefit of business connections which bring them money and media connections to keep traffic coming to their sites

Here's a new blog - The Bloogeyman, go say hi

Not worth your time

What I found funny was that a few right-wing bloggers complained that it was liberal bloggers and "Deaniacs" who get all the good coverage about blogging.  :-)  Yeah, that's right.  "Deaniacs" get great coverage in the mainstream media.

Still, I completely agree with your concern about the over-representation of conservative bloggers in these forums.  I completely agree that we need to be doing more in terms of coordination and positive self-promotion.

Good bloggers and posters are educators, and like most teachers don't get the credit they deserve for the students they launched into the world. If you don't get satisfaction from seeing ideas that were once shared by a small number of people become the accepted reality for thousands of politically engaged people, then I suggest you are working in the wrong medium.

What, IMHO, needs to be done is for people like Duncan and Josh and Kevin and Markos to have a list of people that they recommend for media/conference appearances when they are approached and decide not to participate.

Although considered a liberal in my long years living in the US, my staunch opposition to Chavez in Venezuela has made me pass for a conservative in my blog.  Indeed I have been linked or cited by many a conservative site while liberals tend to either shut up or support Chavez.  

Yet my opposition is based on the ineficciency and the authoritarian tendencies of the regime, not on his social agenda which can be justified in Venezuela.  However, progressive folks in the US are only too willing to endorse Chavez as long as he attacks Bush intervention in Iraq.  All the other faults are simply swept away.

Yet, informed liberals such as Kerry did find time to condemn without any ambiguity the chavista regime and its human and civil rights violations.

There is perhaps a need to avoid such ethical double standards among Liberal bloggers if there is more media coverage desired, as seem to be the wish of this thread.  It is more than just a question of money to have access to TV.  Consistency and clarity of objectives will land you TV spots just as I was interviewed by a foremost liberal journalist in Venezuela, on her daily radio spot.  And this interview was in Spanish although my blog is one of the two English language political blogs from Venezuela, and as such could not ever aspire to astronomical hits obtained by either liberal or conservative blogs in the US.  Yes, Spanish is the main language of Venezuela and this was not an obstacle for me to land a spot on a radio show when many Spanish language blogs trash me in hits per day.

PS: and if you want acknowledgement of my liberal past I can refer you to a recent post that actually illustrates in part what I am talking about

http://daniel-venezuela.blogspot.com/2005/03/tale-of-venezuelan-in-boston.html