This morning at the Big Tent, Air America and MSNBC's Rachel Maddow hosted a discussion with Dr. Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google. The subject of the talk is how the internet is impacting the 2008 elections.

Maddow started out with pointing out that for the last several elections, broad claims have been made that the internet was making a major difference - but has it? Eric Schmidt responded that it is becoming more and more the case. His example of how the internet has recently made a big difference was how in the 2006 Senate races the GOP candidate in Virginia used the word "macaca" to describe a person of color, and it got around on Youtube, which may have been the pivotal point in that election. The viral nature of that video made a big difference in the shift of power in the US Senate.

Is that just increasing? It seems to be the case. More and more citizen journalism is emerging, and here at the Big Tent that is certainly evident.

I have to give a lot of credit to the American public. As the mainstream media headed down in quality, we the people decided to take action and instead of just whining or resigning ourselves, we decided to create our own media.

There is no better example of that than here in Denver right now. The hundreds of bloggers at the Big Tent, the public access show producers crawling all over town with cameras, and the alternative media are all doing what the mainstream media isn't.

While the big cable news networks are focused on parsing the words in speeches to try to determine the impact on the horse race for president, the citizen media is out there reporting on everything from what is going on with the police in Denver during the DNC to how well the "greenness" of the convention is working.

Today is the Common Cause sponsored Media Symposium at the Big Tent in Denver. The goal of the day is to bring issues of media reform to the alternative media that is gathered here at the Big Tent as well as to many of the DNC delegates who are in town.

We have gotten started today with an address by FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein (introduced by Common Cause President Bob Edgar). Commissioner Adelstein made a clear call for stopping and reversing media consolidation, increasing media diversity and protecting net neutrality. He specifically called for the tax certificate for minority media ownership, which we called for in our recent plan for media reform in a new administration. As the day moves forward, come back to view more reports on the day's activities at our media symposium.

Check out the footage of Glenn Greenwald and Jane Hamsher attempting to talk to attendees of a swanky AT&T sponsored party last night.

AT&T's name is littered across both the DNC and RNC party lists as a host of lavish receptions as well as a major donor to both conventions' Host Committees.  AT&T has a lot at stake in Congress in 2009.  Smells wrong.

Earlier today I sat in on a panel at the Big Tent on climate change.  Featured among the panelists was Robert Kennedy Jr., along with Prof. David Orr and others.

While the conversation focused on global warming and the policy solutions--capping carbon emissions, ending the subsidies for fossil fuels like coal and gas, investing in renewables, and strengthening our electric grid--the panelists were in agreement and a couple, including Kennedy, got into the political reasons why we haven't made progress on virtually any of those fronts.

I am sitting here in Denver at The Big Tent seeing something that could not happen without net neutrality.

At this event (which we co-sponsored) there are hundreds of citizen journalists using the new media to create real time coverage of the Democratic National Convention, coverage about the coverage, commentary about it, commentary about the commentary, etc. The Internet's neutral nature is what allows this to thrive.

There are people here blogging for scores of different major websites like Daily Kos and Slate.com and smaller websites like www.turnmaineblue.com. There are people using videocameras to create content to post to youtube and other video websites. And through the online forums as well as the personal interaction here, we are seeing the same kind of "newsroom" collaboration that we are losing at the newspapers all across America as big corporations like News Corp gobble up local papers and force them to cut back on reporting and just fill their papers with nationally produced content.

The kind of collaboration you saw in "All the President's Men" is alive and well, and it's here in the Big Tent. But as I said earlier, without net neutrality, this could all go away.

Where do the two major party candidates stand on the media reform issues we highlight in our new report, "Media and Democracy in America Today: A Reform Plan for a New Administration"?

It's a mixed bag.

McCain has a strong record of supporting Low Power FM Radio, increasing diversity of media ownership, funding public broadcasting and free air time for campaigns. However, he has opposed stopping media consolidation and is against net neutrality.

Obama on the other hand has been a vocal supporter of net neutrality and has actively opposed media consolidation. While generally good on most of the issues we highlight in the new report, he has less of a record to show for it.

And there are gaps in our knowledge. That's why we would like to hear from their campaigns and anyone else who can tell us where they stand on issues like reforming the processes at the Federal Communications Commission and if they support PEG Access TV.

We have a full chart of their stands on the issues we raise in our new report - as far as we know them. Check it out, and let us know if you have any more information.

The Democratic Party has released its national platform and includes a healthy plank about media and democracy, according to TV Week. The platform reportedly includes support for a number of issues we at Common Cause have been advocating for. These include:

Net Neutrality,
Clarifying broadcasters' public interest obligations, and
Increasing the diversity of the ownership of the media

It also calls for the creation of what would probably be a cabinet-level position of Chief Technology Officer, which sounds like a very good idea. Right now we are deeply concerned that nobody is in charge of the digital TV transition, but if there was a CTO, that person would ultimately be responsible.

We commend the Democratic Party for embracing these goals. We look forward to seeing what the Republican Party platform says as well as what Senator McCain's media platform is.