Dowbrigade

Against
all odds and from the distant shores of South America, the Dowbrigade
somehow got his shit together long enough to apply for one of the limited and
highly sought after blogger slots at the Democratic National Convention.
After reading several articles in the New York Times and elsewhere about
the big-time bloggers who had applied, we  put our chances of being
selected a bit below Ralph Nader’s.

Imagine our surprise when sorting through one of several big cardboard
boxes of correspondence which had accumulated in our absence to find
a letter from the convention organizers. So thin, one sheet, shades of
college applications, a rejection letter for sure. But no! This
letter advised that we have been awarded a full floor pass for the duration
of the convention. The Dowbrigade will be blogging the convention!

(rare file photo of Dowbrigade dancing)

Our first thought was relief that, being the party currently out of
power, the Dems apparently lacked access to our full file. Our next
thought was our obligation to you, dear readers, to provide a kind of
coverage
you won’t be getting anywhere else.

Then, Thursday night at the Berkman Blogger’s Meeting, we discovered
that no less than FOUR bloggers intimately involved with the Berkman
Center were among the select few.  Jay Rosen, a recently named
Berkman fellow, who immediately posted a brilliant
and insightful analysis of the evolving role of the political
conventions and the press coverage thereof on his blog, PressThink;
Dave Winer, who brings the power and inimitable style of Scripting
News, and our blogging buddy Rick Heller, maestro of the Open
Source Novel and the Swing Voter Weblog. There will be a whole contingent of Berkmanites working hard to crack the case.

We are as excited about this as we have been about anything since Lisa
Sattinger invited us for a sleep over when her parents were out of town,
and we were only 15 then. The possibilities for fun and fireworks are
intoxicating. Can we loosen the stranglehold the major media have exercised
over the political process for over 50 years? We’re sure going to try.

A sample from Jay Rosen:

Now come the bloggers, a tiny group added to the mix, who with all their
faults and shenanigans have one great advantage. They aren’t a part
of the failed regime in political convention coverage. They don’t have
to pretend it has the right narrative. They’re free to look with fresh
eyes and re-decide what a convention actually is, knowing where the
dead zones are.

from PressThink