Earlier this week, MSNBC announced that Rachel Maddow would get her own show in the nightly line-up, replacing Dan Abrams.  The announcement was a victory for progressives in a number of ways.  First, Maddow's show will strengthen the toe-hold that progressive voices like Keith Olbermann have on cable TV.  Second, Maddow represents perhaps the first progressive voice to bubble up through the nascent progressive media machine and into traditional media.  Finally, Maddow is the first woman with her own show representing progressives on one of the three major cable news channels.

As important a victory as Maddow's show is, we should not bask too long in the glow of victory.  Now that corporate media has acknowledged the importance of attracting a progressive audience, it's time for the movement to flex its muscle still further.

Update: Thanks for all the great comments below; I'm sorry I haven't been able to respond. Meanwhile, check out this post from Tracy van Slyke with more steps for supporting Maddow's show. By way of disclosure, my company worked with her and the Media Consortium on the Live from Main Street website.

More on what we can do to extend the reach of progressive voices on cable TV, across the flip...

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Keith Olbermann has become quite the prima donna.

Viewers tuning in a few moments early to the MSNBC debate,
were treated to Olbermann in a psychotic rant.
The righteous posture he adapts to go after right wing criminals like
Libby, Abramoff, and Cheney.

But this was no scandal du jour.  The words of hatred were being hurled
at a law abiding democrat.  Her sin?  Running for public office.
Who in just minutes, would be engaged in a national debate on
Olbermann's own channel.

A worthy democratic candidate being publically stoned
and persecuted.  Why?  Because they can.

I can't comment on the ritual post debate vilification of Clinton,
because I don't have the stomach to watch them anymore.

I was just happy that for the first time, NBC finally conducted a
balanced debate that wasn't calculated to hurt Clinton and throw her
off her game.

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This week CNN launched iReport, a video sharing citizen journalism site where users have a chance to upload reports which might be picked up and used on-air at CNN.  The launch builds on previous experiments by CNN to incorporate citizen journalism into its reporting.  The site is technically in beta now, and is slated for launch in March.  I should also mention that CNN is hardly the first network to stumble across the idea of citizen journalism: The Real News, a non-profit progressive TV news show, has been supporting citizen journalism through their community website The Real News Junkies for several months now, with a significantly lower budget.

iReport is, as might be expected, far from perfect.  TechCrunch has already taken it to task for failing to compensate contributors and for relatively lackluster content.  In many ways, iReport is really just a shadow of YouTube, with the main difference being that iReport submissions have the chance to be picked up by a large international TV network.  CNN does provide a few helpful hints on the type of video that has a better chance at getting on air: stories about presidential candidate sitings, salutes to the troops, and severe weather.  At least they're not setting the bar too high.

I'm curious to see whether this site could become an entrypoint for progressives to push news coverage on CNN further to the left.  I'm under no illusions that Bill Bennett will have his racist keister ejected from election night coverage, nor that Lou Dobbs will join a mariachi band and issue a teary-eyed apology for his hate-mongering past.  I'm fairly positive that CNN will start off by deciding which stories it wants to run, and occasionally turning to iReport for cheap footage that reinforces their predefined point of view.  But eventually, I'd like to hope, a deluge of reports with a leftist bent - hearings on global warming, let's say, or personal testimonials that indict the health care system - will encourage story editors to adopt a more progressive slant.  Such a deluge would be an incentive for the network to offer substantive, progressive news by lowering the cost of doing so.

Or, we could watch stories about ketchup.

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Over the past few months, I've written a few pieces on the feasibility of establishing a progressive cable news channel.  I've written about opportunities to push MSNBC in a leftward direction for the short-term, as well as a long-term strategy for piecing together a new national network using leased cable access in a number of major metropolitan areas.  Today, I'll discuss the work of The Real News, an up-and-coming non-profit progressive news channel based in Canada, which has a fascinating long-term plan for establishing a national presence for progressive TV news.  If you're unfamiliar with The Real News, this interview with CEO Paul Jay gives a great overview to the channel's understanding of how to deliver high-quality journalism in today's environment.

I recently spoke with Geraldine Cahill, the director of social media for The Real News, about the channel's plans for 2008 and beyond.  The Real News has a lot of interesting plans for the future, and many of them are, I think, very much on the right track.  This is an exciting example of a new up-and-coming progressive institution which "gets it" in many ways, and I think it deserves a lot of support from the blogosphere.  Cahill and I spoke about the channel's plans for more content, more widespread distribution, better fundraising, and increased engagement of grassroots supporters and donors.  Much more across the flip.

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Yesterday I wrote about an important opportunity for making cable TV a bit more progressive - the possibility of replacing Tucker Carlson with a progressive on MSNBC.  The comments on that post showed clearly that there are a lot of people thinking about how to make cable more progressive - ranging from a wide-ranging debate on who should represent progressives on cable TV, to a thoughtful post on how to schedule a progressive evening lineup, and more.  I think this kind of energy is really valuable, and I hope that it's not wasted on MSNBC.  While the channel does appear willing to experiment with progressive voices, it will never be a reliable progressive cable channel, and we shouldn't expect it to be.  Instead, we should be planning to create our own progressive cable channel.  Luckily, recent FCC rulings have just made that a little bit easier.

On Wednesday, the FCC slashed rates on leased cable access to 10 cents per subscriber per month.  With leased access, independent programmers can pay to gain access to part of a cable carrier's lineup.  Rates on leased access were about four times higher prior to Wednesday's decision.

Over the past couple of weeks, I've exchanged a few emails with Bob Fertik, President of Democrats.com, about the FCC's various efforts to regulate cable.  We both agree that this decision opens a door for liberal entrepreneurs to begin laying the groundwork for a national progressive cable news channel.  (And I should also give credit to a friend of Bob, who spoke to me about some of the broad outlines of a strategy for progressive cable, which I outline below.)  The basic strategy is simple: line up prime time leased access on cable channels in a number of major media markets, and put progressive programming in that time.  If that strategy can succeed with representation in many major markets, then we might be able to leverage it into a dedicated national channel.  While the strategy is simple, it's certainly not easy.  Over the flip, I'll have more on what we will need to pull together to get this idea to be successful, and opportunities for liberal entrepreneurs to make money while creating a national progressive cable network.

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