Jon Stewart, Fox News and Burritos

Matt Cooper reports from Denver: At the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago, which saw the worst rioting at any nominating convention in modern times, the great divide was whether you were inside the hall or outside getting beat up by police. In Denver, the big question is whether you have the credentials to get in the Pepsi Center or whether your at The Big Tent, where I am now.

It's the haven for bloggers at the Democratic convention, most of whom actually have credentials for the Pepsi Center, too. A few blocks from the Pepsi Center where Barack Obama will be nominated, a couple of hundred bloggers have gathered here in a tent made possible by Google, Digg, Chipotle (who are providding the burritos) and a slew of other sponsors from Papa Johns to Skype. In a you wouldn't believe it if they made it up moment, the Huffington Post is running a spa in the adjacent building and I'll be talking to Arianna herself later.

It's smart for corporations to get behind the blogger movement. It makes them seem hip and cool even if, in the case of Chipotle, which is owned by McDonald's they're a symbol of what most of the bloggers are rebelling against.

Speaking of rebelling, I spent the morning with other reporters at a breakfast held by Jon Stewart and Comedy Central. The Daily Show will be broadcasting from Denver all week and it should be pretty fun. We were shown a few film clips of things that are coming, but that are being embargoed. Stewart himself spent most of the breakfast complaining about the mainstream media, its lack of in depth reporting, coziness with official sources and taking its cue from 24-hour cable news. "They've forced everybody on the same gerbil wheel," he said.

While he ripped into Fox News for having Karl Rove as a pundit and for not asking him constantly about his prevarications in the CIA leak case—in which I had a small part—he offered this bit of faint praise for Fox. "I think Fox does the best probably because they have an idea of what they're doing. Because they have an editorial perspective they're able to focus it more. It's more cohesive and it makes more sense." I find it hard to disagree with that.

Photo: Elizabeth Nietch gives a free massage to Alice Kelly of ZDF, a German television network, at the Google Retreat on the eve of the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado. Photo by Max Whittaker/Getty Images.

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