On Monday in St. Paul, the Huffington Post hosted a luncheon panel on how the new media are impacting the 2008 presidential race. Titled "Game Change," the panel was moderated by MSNBC's Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski and featured Arianna Huffington, Tony Blankley, Peggy Noonan, Laura Ingraham, Frank Luntz, Cyrus Krohn, David Kralik, John Fund, and Rep. John Shaddeg.
Watch the panel (video Courtesy of FORA.tv):
Below is a collection of some of the things people are saying about the lunch (as well as selected photos, courtesy WireImage):
The HuffPo brunch today was easily the best panel we've attended in the last two weeks. It was a decidedly smaller affair than the one last week in Denver, at least as far as the audience size is concerned (guesstimating 100 people to the more than three hundred at the DNC).
@FishbowlDC Joe scar:Are u telling me that there are higher editorial standards In the blogs I read every day than at the new york times and wsj?
@FishbowlDC Ingraham on Palin pregnancy rumor v. News: I love bloggers, but there's so much out there to wade through. props to old school reporting
@FishbowlDC Joe scarborough: we' re going to get to a point where we don't have any investigative journalism
@rachelsklar Peggy Noonan: The MSM is in an awkward moment.
@rachelsklar John Fund is emerging as one of the smarter voices at this panel, actually.
@rachelsklar Callback: Fund brings it back to Ed Rendell's challenge last week.
@tvnewser Panel continues to be stunned by Rep. Shadegg's four blackberries.
@rachelsklar Ingraham: The old media blew it - hence the Druge Report, hence the HuffingtonPost - and by the way, how many of you counted out AH?
@rachelsklar Who are the gatekeepers and where are the gates?
Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan compared the Internet to "walking into Bedlam [insane asylum] in the 1880s with a megaphone and asking, 'Does anybody have anything to say?'" Panelists remarked on the vitriol within new media, especially in the often-anonymous comments section of many sites.
Tucker Carlson, who was personally called out four years ago by Jon Stewart for hosting a show that was "hurting America," today said intolerance on the Web is "what is hurting America."
"And I'm saying this as the former host of Crossfire," he told the audience of about 100 people at the Nicollet Island Inn in Minneapolis.
Today in Minneapolis, The Huffington Post hosted a panel discussion about the rise of new media with a host of leading traditional media personalities. Conservative radio talk show host Laura Ingraham applauded the rise of the online journalism. "Look, the old media blew it; the free market does work," she said. But many of her conservative co-panelists lamented the perils of this free market.
Moderators Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski
Arianna Huffington, Laura Ingraham, and Mika Brzezinski
Arianna Huffington and Tony Blankley
Cyrus Krohn and Frank Luntz
John Fund, Peggy Noonan, and Tony Blankley
Joe Klein and Mika Brzezinski
Cindy Adams and Jeff Greenfield
Willie Geist and Joe Scarborough
Ron Silver and Tucker Carlson