I’m happy to announce that the amazing Laura Flanders debuted her new DAILY show yesterday, Grit TV. You can find it on Free Speech TV (DISH Network ch. 9415) AND watch clips with their new online partner FireDogLake.

I’m super pleased that this show:
a) has a great, progressive host who is an extremely smart journalist (not a blow hard pundit)
b) has a smart, journalist host who is a woman…
c) … a woman dedicated to not only “progressive, mainstream, political” news but is also committed to feminism and racial justice, which is reflected in her story choices and the kind of guests she will showcase. This doesn’t happen all the time in progressive media (Shaking finger…)
d) is taking advantage of multiple platforms-traditional tv, online communities and new distribution channels at Blip TV.

(Full Disclosure: Laura is working on a project with The Media Consortium called Live From Main Street. More to come on that one.)

And to get really meta on you, here are a couple clips from the first show–a round table of media professionals, discussing what else? The Media. Watch Laura talk with Phil Donahue, Jane Hamsher and Katrina vanden Heuvel talk about the news of the week, the news the progressive media is pushing, and the evolution of the media landscape.

PART 1: The News (or what shouldn’t have been news, but was anointed as news by the MSM) of The Week

PART II: The first half of this one talks about the rising stories int the blogosphere (impact to come!) and how the media ecosystem is changing.

Part III: Really zone in around 5 min. 45 seconds.Katrina starts discussing how the prog. media, working together can around an the issue of media consolidation (6:20). A couple years ago the notion of working in tandem with each other was scoffed at, dismissed and generally feared.  Now–the power of coordination (not lock-step coordination, let me be clear) has new energy and potential People also see it as a lifeline to impact and their survival.