The Triangle: Understanding YearlyKos

If you judge by traditional media accounts of the 2006 YearlyKos convention, it's about the anti-establishment netroots (the outsiders) going 'mainstream' and becoming the establishment.

Adam Nagourney and Maureen Dowd each take that approach, as do other reporters covering the gathering.

Nagourney:

"There were the bloggers — nearly a thousand of them, many of them familiar names by now — emerging from the shadows of their computers for a three-day blur of workshops, panels and speeches about politics, the power of the Internet and the shortcomings of the Washington media. And right behind them was a parade of prospective Democratic presidential candidates and party leaders, their presence a tribute to just how much the often rowdy voices of the Web have been absorbed into the very political process they frequently disdain, much to the amazement, and perhaps discomfort, of some of the bloggers themselves.

They may think of themselves as rebels, separate from mainstream politics and media. But by the end of a day on which the convention halls were shoulder to shoulder with bloggers, Democratic operatives, candidates and Washington reporters, it seemed that bloggers were well on the way to becoming — dare we say it? — part of the American political establishment. Indeed, the convention, the first of what organizers said would become an annual event, seems on the way to becoming as much a part of the Democratic political circuit as the Iowa State Fair."

Dowd:

"Mr. Moulitsas assured me he didn't see himself as a journalist, only a Democratic activist. "I don't plan on doing any original reporting - screw that. I need people like you," he said, agreeing that since he still often had to pivot off the reporting of the inadequate mainstream media to form his inflammatory opinions, our relationship was, by necessity, "symbiotic."

As I wandered around workshops, I began to wonder if the outsiders just wanted to get in. One was devoted to training bloggers, who had heretofore not given much thought to grooming and glossy presentation, on how to be TV pundits and avoid the stereotype of nutty radical kids.

Mr. Moulitsas said he had a media coach who taught him how to stand, dress, speak, breathe and even get up from his chair. Another workshop coached Kossacks on how to talk back to Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity. "One of my favorite points," the workshop leader said, "is that the French were right."

Even as Old Media is cowed by New Media, New Media is trying to become, rather than upend, Old Media. Ms. Cox has left her Wonkette gig to be a novelist and Time essayist. Mr. Moulitsas and Mr. Armstrong wrote a book called "Crashing the Gate," and hit "Meet the Press" and the book tour circuit. Mr. Armstrong left his liberal blog to become a senior adviser to Mr. Warner. What could be more mainstream than that?"

Nagourney and Dowd miss the point entirely. In a series of essays describing a 'Triangle' of political power, I attempted to assess the scope of netroots influence. The premise of my piece was that the online community (communicating on blogs, message boards, etc.) was a new power structure, independent of the political and media establishment. The question was about the limits of its power, not whether it would merge into one or the other existing power structures:

"Looking at the political landscape, one proposition seems unambiguous: blog power on both the right and left is a function of the relationship of the netroots to the media and the political establishment. Simply put, without the participation of the media and the political establishment, the netroots alone cannot generate the critical mass necessary to alter or create conventional wisdom. This is partly a factor of audience size, but it’s also a matter, frankly, of trust and legitimacy." (Triangle, illustrated)

YearlyKos is certainly a milestone in the growing legitimacy of the blog world. But Dowd and Nagourney seem to believe that cross-pollination among the netroots, the traditional media and the political establishment somehow represents the annexation of the netroots by the establishment. That's like saying the political establishment is becoming the media because of politicians-turned-pundits.

The blogosphere is a new power base, a stand-alone entity with its own ethos. Within that sphere, stratification and the emergence of a hierarchical structure are increasingly relevant topics of discussion. That said, the real question for the progressive netroots and the establishment media alike is whether or not the online community will prevail upon the media to stop caving in to rightwing pressure. It's a war between two distinct centers of political power and the media's strategy appears to be a hodge podge of misunderstanding, misstating, and marginalizing the blogs.