I'll make my point at the outset: Mainstream media will not weaken Daily Kos. Daily Kos is more than just Markos. It's a community of diarists whose views on issues may or may not mesh with his. What Markos has done is provide progressives, those who feel their government and the ideals of our country are being hijacked by the radical right, with a place to express themselves. If Markos retired to a remote island off of Fiji tomorrow, Daily Kos would continue for years.

Markos has never held himself out as the Pied Piper of the netroots. He repeatedly has expressed his discomfort at the media's attempts to cast him in this light. He has no ambitions of being the maestro or rock star of the movement. I have known Markos for 4 years. He designed TalkLeft. I've spent time with him and his family in San Francisco and at their home in Berkely. I've hung out with him in Washington, Boston, New York and Denver. Here's how I see him.

Update: Murray tells his story in his own words. Empty Wheel weighs in with some personal experience of her own.

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The intrepid reporter Murray Waas had a secret. He's decided to tell. Howie Kurtz in the Washington Post has the details. Murray is a cancer survivor. At age 26, he was told 90% of people with his kind of cancer are dead within two years. He sued the George Washington Medical Center and won $650,000, a verdict upheld on appeal, for failing to properly diagnose him. Happily, the doctors were wrong, and despite a recurrance in 2000, he is now cancer-free.

Who knew the she-pundit is a long-standing Deadhead? Via Amanda at Pandagon and Sadly No, here's the Jambands interview with the divine Ms. C.

She estimates she's been to 67 Dead concerts and reports she doesn't smoke pot. One of the funniest quotes:

I fondly remember seeing the Dead when I was at Cornell. It was the day of the fabulous Fiji Island party on the driveway "island" of the Phi Gamma Delta House. We'd cover ourselves in purple Crisco and drink purple Kool-Aid mixed with grain alcohol and dance on the front yard. Wait - I think got the order reversed there: We'd drink purple Kool-Aid mixed with grain alcohol and then cover ourselves in purple Crisco - then the dancing. You probably had to be there to grasp how utterly fantastic this was.

Newsweek runs two blogger profiles today. One is an overt attack on Markos of Daily Kos, the liberal blogosphere and politicians who seek their support. The other is a total puff piece on conservative Hugh Hewitt and his plans to combine right-wing talk radio with right-wing bloggers and build an effective right wing political movement.

Why the venom towards Markos and the hailing of Hewitt? Both pieces come off as being written by journalists with a right-wing agenda. Even the accompanying photos show the bias. In the piece on Kos, there is no picture of him [added: on the first page of the article] only of Bush protesters in Washington state which has nothing to do with the article. For the Hewitt article, there's a nice calm photo of Hugh in suit and tie standing in front of what could be a courthouse right under the headline. It's like they are equating liberals with anarchy and conservatives with justice.

The Observer has a very personal interview with Neil Young, in which he discusses his family, his two sons with cerebral palsy, his life and Iraq.

If you don't yet have a copy of Living With War, get it here:

Journalist Matt Cooper is leaving Time Magazine to become the Washington editor of a new Conde Nast business publication, Portfolio, scheduled to debut in April, 2007.

Time is a great American institution and Time.com, where I've worked the last few months, a great site and I know they'll get stronger under my friend, [Time managing editor] Rick Stengel," said Cooper in a statement on his move. "The company also stood by me, personally and financially, during the Plame case and I'll always be grateful for that. But startups are rare and the chance to be present at the creation of something new was impossible to resist."

Sorry for the less frequent posting today, I guest-hosted again at Eric Alterman's Altercation. Today's topic is Hold the Story, the Treasury Department's request to the New York Times and LA Times not to publish their reports on the Administration's program to obtain international bank records using administrative subpoenas issued without court authorization.

My view:

The newspapers were right to publish reports on the program. We have an Administration that operates in incredible secrecy and a President who believes he can trump the will of Congress and bypass the Courts. Given the NSA warrantless electronic surveillance program and the huge surge in the use of national security letters to obtain our phone records and more, we cannot just take them at their word.

Don't miss Frontline's The Dark Side about Dick Cheney at 9 pm ET. Here's a thread to discuss it.

Jamison Foser of Media Matters has the must read article of the day. He writes about why progressives should make the media the defining issue of our times.

I just finished being on a panel "Leakers and the Press" at the American Constitution Society convention in D.C. There was one conservative law professor, Maimon Schwarzchild, on the panel, which also included Law Prof Geoff Stone, 9th Circuit Justice Stephen Reinhardt and Constitutional and Media Law attorney Laura Handman.

Professor Shwarzchild asserted the mainstream media has an overly liberal bias. I challenged him on thatand asked him if he had read Lapdogs or What Liberal Media? I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to get a third reference in....it would have been to Media Matters.

The point being, it's a myth that there is liberal bias in the media. Read Media Matters and learn how to refute the myth with facts.

Congratulations, Dan!

Dan Abrams has been named general manager of MSNBC.

NBC News legal correspondent Dan Abrams was put in charge of MSNBC Monday -- and his first move was to take himself off the air there. It was not immediately clear whether the legal-oriented "The Abrams Report" will continue with a different host or whether it will be replaced by another show.

Markos of Daily Kos was on Meet the Press today (transcript here) discussingYearly Kos which took place this weekend in Las Vegas. Crooks and Liars has the video.

Among other topics, Markos discusses why we are opposed to Joe Lieberman. It's not just because he supports the war. It's because he undermines the Democratic party. Even Hillary Clinton, who as of now clearly is not our favorite, doesn't do that. He also said that if Lieberman wins the primary, the net rooters will support him.

Markos agreed with Russert that "the blogosphere has become to liberal activists what talk radio is to conservative activists."

The great keyboardist, singer and songwriter Billy Preston has died at age 59. He suffered from kidney failure and had received a transplant that didn't take. He was on dialysis for a long time. Roger Friedman has more on Billy Preston's website.

Among his credits (received from TL commenter Rocker):

1970) Let It Be -- including "Get Back"
(1970) All Things Must Pass (George Harrison)
(1971) Sticky Fingers (Rolling Stones)
(1971) The Concert for Bangla Desh (George Harrison And Friends)
(1971) There's a Riot Goin' On (Sly & the Family Stone)
(1972) Exile on Main Street (Rolling Stones)
(1973) Goats Head Soup (Rolling Stones)
(1974) It's Only Rock'n Roll (Rolling Stones)
(1975) Blood on the Tracks (Bob Dylan)
(1975) "You Are So Beautiful" (Joe Cocker's biggest hit)
(1976) Black and Blue (Rolling Stones)