My active social calendar brought me to Los Feliz tonight, for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to meet Eric Alterman, The Nation columnist and author of the bestselling What Liberal Media? For those of you who haven't read it yet, the thesis of the book is that the notion of the "liberal media" is a myth, manufactured by conservatives in order to influence more favorable coverage of their agenda; as one former GOP chairman put it, to "work the ref" in the same manner that a Bobby Knight or a Gary Williams might. Although his book doesn't really go into detail about blogs, or the role they played in the fall of Trent Lott, he did note that this was a way in which progressive voices could similarly influence the coverage of the news.

Also, I found out that although this site has been on his list of favored links for the better part of the last six months, he's not sure if he's ever visited. Since I get about a quarter of my traffic from Altercation, and was admittedly thrilled and honored to have been linked there, I have to admit feeling humbled knowing that. Still, his lecture tonight will be on C-SPAN next week, with yours truly making a cameo appearance. Also, he told a great variation of the joke about the comedian's convention, which I will happily pass along to any who are interested.