The headline of this NYT story, to be fully accurate, should read "Reticence of Mainstream Media Becomes a Story Itself, and Blogosphere Shows the Way Back." I suppose it's not surprising that, to find the best commentary on the mainstream media's distaste and slow engagement with the Edwards scandal, NYT leads into its story with a lengthy quote from a blog -- albeit a blog of a major paper. Political blogs, some cable networks and a few newspapers reported on it — or, more accurately, reported on The Enquirer reporting on it. Jay Leno and David Letterman made Mr. Edwards the butt of jokes on their late-night shows, but their own networks declined to report on the rumors surrounding him on the evening news. ... Some of their comments point to a lack of interest in a story about the private conduct of an also-ran presidential candidate, and a distaste…

About 8 minutes into FCC commissioner's Jonathan Adelstein's speech here at PDF, 10-20 audience members shifted in their scattered seats, stood up, and left to turn to other matters - like perhaps Dasani water. His combination of dryness, truisms we all know about, working for the Man and a really, really bad opening joke left everyone unimpressed. And what was remarkable was how it "tipped" so suddenly. Like the room breathed a sigh of disappointment then turned its energy elsewhere. I can't blame them, but it is too bad. There's nothing wrong with the chance to hear a government official say "Let's get the data out there. Let's not be afraid what the public thinks." The collective downturn was probably pushed along by the twitter back-chat, where digital tools make the group's take on its own experience more palpable to the group. To quote one twitterer: Buzzword buzzword bland corporate-speak…

After flight cancellations barred her realspace attendance, Elizabeth Edwards is appearing right now at PDF for her conversation with Andrew Rasiej on the role of the Internet in the campaigns, in media, and in culture. She is wonderfully pithy - smooth even, though in a very genuine seeming way - on these topics. On the latest Pew stat that 50% of Americans get political information online, she was skeptical. Getting your news from CNN.com, she said, "is not getting your information from the Internet." She's surprised that after the success of the 2004 "swift boat" attacks - as much as she "despised" it - that there haven't been more similar uses of the web to get a message out. Andrew asked if she thinks presidential candidates themselves actually gets the Internet and its potential, or if it's still seen as "mostly a spigot." Her answer, "... mostly a spigot, but…