One of the main items of business at this weekend's BlogHer Conference was to announce the results of the BlogHers Act survey of thousands of women bloggers to determine what main issues we, as women, want to hear the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates address if they want to get our votes in 2008.
It wasn't difficult for Cooper Monroe and Emily McKhann, two activist bloggers who were behind the been there clearinghouse to aid victims of Hurricane Katrina, to figure out that if major advertisers like GM, Dove, Yahoo and Google are interested in a conference where close 1,000 women bloggers will be, that we, as a group, could also have significant influence on the major political issues in the next election.
The winner? Global Health.
A pretty significant issue for a whole variety of reason, especially when it comes to the whole health insurance coverage question.
But who is going to find out about this amazing effort to lead the way on gaining attention for and promoting solutions for the myriad health care issues we all face when no one from the main stream media shows up to cover it?
If we blog about health care and no one covers it, do we make a sound?
It didn't occur to me that there was no one there really covering BlogHer -- 800+ (mostly) women bloggers working together to be more politically savvy -- until someone mentioned that the YearlyKos convention is going to be held this week, as well.
So I did a news search for the BlogHer conference -- there were no major media stories that reported on this historic event. There's a Yahoo Tech entry, some press releases and a mention in the Orlando Sentinel from another woman blogger.
For YearlyKos? Plenty of stories, including ones in the National Journal, the Washington Post, MSN, FOX News and the New York Times. That's what I'd call Main Stream Media attention.
So if the MSM is interested in the political aspect of the YearlyKos and the impact that conference has on political coverage, where were they for BlogHer?
Last year's Kos Konvention attracted close to 1,000 bloggers, according to the New York Times. This year, BlogHer had 800+ -- doesn't seem like much difference to me.
So where are they? And why aren't those reporters clamoring to interview us bloggers with two X chromosomes about our agenda?
A woman with a blog, especially a politically active and pissed-off woman, is a powerful thing.
MSM -- you might want to reconsider before we get testy.
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