Chuck Plunkett, member of the Denver Post’s editorial board, spoke at Denver’s Liberty On the Rocks September 15. He joked, “I’m from the mainstream media, and I’m here to help.”
But his message was sincere: “If the liberty movement energy is to mean anything, it’s going to be folks like you that actually takes it somewhere. That’s your challenge. So all the vitriol, all the raw emotion, [troubled Republican candidate for governor] Dan Maes, that’s just not going to get it. My thesis is you need to supply the intellectual architecture that makes the liberty movement experience matter, or the experiment matter.”
Plunkett’s talk illustrates the symbiosis between the “mainstream” media and independent and activist media. While, on the national level, the blogosphere seems to constantly war with the “mainstream” media, in Colorado journalists, bloggers, and thoughtful activists seem to participate together more in a broader intellectual community.
The Denver Post responds to bloggers and sometimes writes about them, while bloggers and independent writers often break important stories and participate directly in the major media. Events like Plunkett’s talk reinforce that collaboration and exchange.