James Boyce has begun a great series on who bloggers really are. He started with his own bio and for installment #2 he interviews Peter Daou…

Obviously, the online political transformation that was in its infancy in 2003 is now full-blown and intensifying, what do you see as the online community’s impact on 2006 and 2008?

The online community is now an important incubator of ideas, a place where a relatively small, dedicated group of people get together and flesh out every possible twist and turn of an issue or a story, feeding their ideas into the bloodstream of American thought and helping drive the national debate.

I know you share the belief that unless both the online and offline worlds start working together, we’re in trouble. You’ve taken that a step further and written about THE TRIANGLE OF POWER - give us the highlights of that theory.

It’s simply a way to understand the scope of blog influence. In essence, I argue that the power of the blogs is a function of the relationship of the netroots to the media and the political establishment (thus, the triangle). I don’t think bloggers alone have the public penetration to alter conventional wisdom on their own, at least not yet, but they can put targeted pressure on the media and on political operatives and work with those two power centers to shape public opinion.

Looking ahead to 2008, if you had the chance to give each potential Democratic candidate one piece of advice - what would it be?

Read blogs and find out how people really feel. Then look at the media landscape and understand that without fixing the media problem, you’re hopelessly disadvantaged…. I guess that’s two pieces of advice.

Speaking of the media, I know that one of your passions is holding them accountable for misleading reporting, how did you get started on this?

I’ve gradually come to the realization that the single biggest obstacle facing the left is the pervasiveness of anti-left and pro-right narratives in the media. What’s the point of your message if it’s filtered through a media lens that’s unfavorable to your position? You know, ‘weak’ Dems and ’strong’ Republicans, ‘un-American’ left and ‘patriotic’ right, and so on.

Until the left gets its act together to address this imbalance, we’ll have more Gore-ing of Gore and Swift-Boating of Kerry. And more anti-Hillary tabloid journalism like the kind we’ve seen recently from the New York Times, David Broder, Tim Russert and others. The astonishing thing is that the “liberal media” absurdity is so entrenched that arguments about pro-right narratives are still met with suspicion, if not outright derision. The standard reply from rightwing bloggers is not a factual rebuttal, but simply “you must be crazy.” Jamison Foser recently posted a great piece about the media problem.

Next up, Boyce says he’ll profile Chris Bowers.