As you may have noticed, blogging has been lighter than usual the past few days. ThinkProgress is in Chicago for the second annual YearlyKos conference, with more than 1,200 bloggers, blog readers, activists, politicians, journalists, and other progressives.
Much of the media coverage hasn’t been especially earth-shattering, focusing on the same themes they wrote about last year: 1) many liberal bloggers don’t fit into the stereotypes the media has created, 2) liberal bloggers are respected (and feared) by politicians, and 3) liberal bloggers disagree about stuff. Some highlights so far:
U.S. News and World Report, Cyberactivists Are A Must-See For Candidates: The prominence of the upcoming event, which features 200 speakers and is expected to draw crowds of more than 1,400, may be a wake-up call for the less Internet-savvy organizations and candidates.
‘Net Roots’ Event Becomes Democrats’ Other National Convention: There is no one leader, the name of the convention notwithstanding, and it’s a disparate, unorganized community that’s almost impossible to categorize. While the leading bloggers are in their 20s and 30s, the rank-and-file are older, in their 40s and 50s.
New York Magazine, Dispatches From The YearlyKos Convention: No one naked around here. No chaos at YearlyKos. No “sweet smell of marijuana,” as the straight papers used to refer to it. No demands for revolution. No denunciations of bourgeois democracy. The Democratic National Committee Chairman is listened to respectfully and cheered enthusiastically.
Seattle Post Intelligencer, “Net Roots” Activists Carry Political Weight: It’s earnest enough to be a little amusing, but these are serious people intent on taking back their country, with the dream of an America run not through Washington, D.C., spin, but with active participation by the governed.
Chicago Tribune, YearlyKos Forum A Magnet For Bloggers And Pols: And anyone who doubts blogger clout should consider this: seven presidential candidates, the two top congressional leaders and the Democratic Party’s chairman will all stop by to pay their respects.
MoJoBlog, Gristmill, DCist, and Ezra have updates from some of the conference’s panel sessions.
View photos from the conference HERE and watch the sessions HERE.
UPDATE: Devilstower at DailyKos has more.
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