In our next segment longhaired slouchy pen-tapping bloggers examine and reinforce stereotypes about bloggers, the blogosphere and blogosity. A brief recounting of the creation myth of GMD follows. John Odum closes this segment by acing his vocab quiz on the terminology of blogology.

I will get the remaining pieces of the debut episode of VTblogosphereTV up in due time. I am also pleased to announce that there will be an episode two. Despite imperfections, episode one went better than I could have expected and I think we exceeded the “boring and amateurish” public access TV threshold.  Again much thanks to John and thanks generally for the feedback and interest.  

(Aw, what the hell. I’ll promote it, even though it has me in it. I swear I got a haircut the next day… – promoted by odum)

step right step right up here it is be the first to see it its the inaugural preeemiere debut episode of VTblogosphereTV! It will be showing on Onion River Community Access (ORCA) Media Monday, July 7  at 9 PM, Tuesday July 8 at 2AM and noon, and Saturday, July 12 at 1PM. ORCA is central VT’s Public access television station. I got real lucky and landed John Odum as the first guest. You may have heard of him. Guy’s a natural. Right here is a sneak preview of first ten minutes of the show.

Below I’m going to get grandiose and offer some reasons the progressive blogosphere needs to expand and migrate to public access television.  

1. Public access Television is just sitting there waiting.

You may have noticed that public access television often features the community calender and wingnut religious programming produced out of state. When these PEG (Public, Educational, Governmental) stations began, there was great hope that they would democratize media. The problem is the service areas were often fragmented and there was no social infrastructure. As an example, ORCAMedia’s service area is not even contiguous– it is basically an island of towns around Montpelier, and another island around Randolph. Very tough to build community based media given the odd carve up of the state’s 24 PEG’s by the cable companies. But guess what– the progressive blogosphere could provide the infrastructure to create more media democracy. And if public access TV as it stands now is an underutilized resource, the advocates for PEG’s don’t have much of an argument to get more stations, if they can’t fill the few they have now with content. When fiber optic hits, the number of stations up for grabs will be substantial. So you want HBO17 or more public access channels?

2.The blogosphere has come of age.

I don’t know if the blogosphere has passed puberty, but I dont think the only way to measure its expansion is to measure the increase in hits to blogs. Another measure is how the talent of the blogosphere migrates to other media. The rise of the rightwing cable TV punditry was basically facilitated by right wing talk radio. The morons on the radio became the morons on the TV, and corporate interests moved the culture of yelling to cable TV lock stock and barrel. Corporate interests will not find homes for progressive bloggers doing quality commentary, analysis, and real live journalism. we will have to build it ourselves

3.More voices drown out the pundits. The blogosphere spends a lot of it efforts decrying the insulting absurd hateful rhetoric that often comes out of the cable yap-world. That is time well spent, but also getting our voices in the cable-yap world would help democratize media. Emailing FOX News about O’Reilly’s racist rantings is one thing; directly refuting his nonsense on TV is an entirely different animal. Think about it– Glenn Beck has a show and we dont?

4.TV watchers may not be hep to the blogosphere

While we discuss everything from FiSA to the governor’s race, there is a parrallel discussion going on on TV that has completely different premises and parameters. Many people watching TV go to TV station website to get their news and only understand the blogosphere as it has been defined to them by the corporate media. Getting on public access TV and defining ourselves for that audience would do much to democratize the media.

5.The new dynamic is local left/corporate right

People come to associate local opinion with the blogosphere and rightist kookiness with corporate cable news. I beieve this is already happening in VT, and Democracy Now! on public access helps that connection. (Democracy Now is supposed to be coming to ORCA any week now…) But that is a national show and more local progressive shows would greatly democratize the media. The stuuf coming out the national corporate press will seem even more alien with countering local voices.

Okay thats only a sampling of all the great reasons why the progressive blogosphere needs to expand to public access TV. I know these aren’t new ideas, and some PEGs are doing a great job delivering the goods– this is just a little contribution. Such a migration could do for TV what the blogosphere did for journalism. Yeah I said I’d get grandiose, but I think a small progressive state like VT is just the place to show how it’s done. So I hope people would be willing to be interviewed, interested in making fun little productions, motivated to further progressive movement begun on the blogs. I plan on doing this show monthly, but if people are motivated to make media, this could grow, as they say, organically. Oh yeah, and John Odum’s a natural.  

The other Independent in the Senate, Bernie Sanders of Vermont, announced that not only is he supporting Barack Obama for President, he has offered to campaign for him. This is actually some pretty big news, as Bernie has never offered to work for a Democratic Presidential candidate before. He has previously supported Democrats, but he has always maintained a level of distance in terms of working for the candidate. But this time Bernie says he feels the need to act as a counterbalance to Senator Joe Lieberman.

I plan to play a very active role,” Sanders said. “I will do everything I can to see that he is elected president.”

Below the fold you will find Bernie drawing a strong distinction between himself and Lieberman, as well as some early indicators that the right will try to paint Obama as an international socialist by tying him to Bernie.  

When the corporate media uses the word “independent,” they usually try to frame it as a centrist made uncomfortable by the extremes of each party. Lieberman has tried to position himself as this kind of Independent, and that is why his support of McCain is supposedly important. But Bernie is here to remind us what a true independent sounds like. That Barack has not shied away from Bernie tells you much about Obama’s ideological sympathies and political instincts.

“I think he appreciated it,” Sanders said of Obama’s reaction to his offer. “He understands that independent voters are going to have a huge role in the outcome of the campaign.”

It is odd that at this point in our history the only two Independents in the Senate are Jews representing New England states. But the similarities end there.

“I don’t want to overstate what I can do,” Sanders said, “but I believe I am better positioned than Lieberman to make the case to independents. The truth is Lieberman is an independent not out of choice. He wanted to win re-election as a Democrat, but he lost.”

Bernie could not have said “Lieberman’s a fake Independent” more diplomatically.

“I can say ‘Hey, I won my first job by defeating a Democrat,” Sanders said. “I think that gives me more credibility as an independent in discussions that I otherwise might not have.”

Obama had already weighed in on Sanders when he stumped For Bernie’s victorious 65/35 stomping of Rich Tarrant in 2006.

“He is an authentic person,” Obama said. “People are longing for leaders who are not blow-dry-hair and sound-byte-ready politicians. Bernie is comfortable in his skin and he feels passionately on the issues.”

“Bernie’s role in Congress has been to speak truth to power, sometimes being a gadfly, sometimes standing on his principles. We need folks like him in that place.”

So the question arises: How do you use Bernie’s offer if you are the Obama campaign? Sanders is a fiery orator who is not afraid to talk about the distribution of wealth and the ruling class. He has been a long term heart attack for the right, and forgive me for quoting Michael Savage to demonstrate the level of vitriol he inspires on the right.

Thanks to Media Matters, they listen to this rubbish so we don’t have to.

On the January 25 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Michael Savage attacked Sen. Bernard Sanders (I-VT), saying, “Kiss my behind, you psycho,” and “Screw you, you jealous loser.” Savage also called Sanders “a rat,” “a bum,” and “a dirty socialist” and told him to “go to hell.” These remarks followed audio clips Savage played on his show, in which Sanders addressed the issues of wealth distribution and childhood poverty. Savage asked: “Now, how did child poverty become an issue all of a sudden? … Two weeks ago we heard that — before the elections, three months ago — that children were overweight and fat from eating too much McDonald’s; they were dying of diabetes from being little piglets. Now, we hear about childhood poverty, childhood poverty.”

Ironically, Savage followed his Bernie screed with madrassa nonsense about Obama.

During the same broadcast, Savage falsely stated that Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) “will not reply” to a report from InsightMag.com claiming that “sources close to [a] background check” supposedly “conducted by researchers connected to” Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) found that Obama was raised as a Muslim by his stepfather in Indonesia and spent at least four years in a madrassa, or a Muslim religious school.

The right has more explicitly tied Obama to that naughty word “socialism” by treating O’s visit to VT to work for Bernie’s first Senate campaign in 2006 as some kind of secret scandal that they’ve “uncovered.”

Blogger Steve Bartin, who has been following Obama’s career and involvement with the Chicago socialists, has uncovered a fascinating video showing Obama campaigning for openly socialist Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. Interestingly, Sanders, who won his seat in 2006, called Obama “one of the great leaders of the United States Senate,” even though Obama had only been in the body for about two years. In 2007, the National Journal said that Obama had established himself as “the most liberal Senator.” More liberal than Sanders? That is quite a feat. Does this make Obama a socialist, too?  

The video? Viewer discretion is advised. Dangerous rhetoric ahead. Bernie and Barack Address Overflow Crowd

(cross-posted at Dailykos)

All this is food for thought to ask the question:

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