On today’s Wilshire & Washington, we ask the question: Who’s on top, the MSM or Digital Media? Who’s leading the discussion, why, and is it a good thing? To help us navigate this tricky landscape, we’ve got New York Times reporter Brian Stelter with us; Stelter covers television and digital media, and spent over three years as the editor of TVNewser.

We start with the health care debate, and how digital media has been driving a lot of this debate. Without the blogs, would the public option have lasted this long? Probably not. We tackle Obama’s First 100 Daysâ„¢. Remember how CNN covered that “story” and then how they covered Obama’s first 200 days as well? They called it news; I call it basic arithmetic. Obviously these stories are moves for higher ratings (isn’t CNN behind the Fly Fishing Network at this point?) but did it work? Is it good for us?

We continue our beat-down of CNN with the coverage of the Iranian Election. Digital media was all over that story, yet CNN – which wants to be a “serious” news channel – defended its lack of coverage (remember #cnnfail?) As Stelter notes, cable news needs to be a live stream, and once Iran became a story, CNN should have followed. But isn’t it a little unfair to bash CNN? Our standards for them are so high (we don’t expect the same from MSNBC or Fox) but when CNN covers silly issues like Michael Jackson’s funeral so extensively, it just confuses us.

While digital has had its moments this year, Stelter believes the MSM is still driving the story most of the time, especially with topics like Afghanistan and Iraq, which – because of cost and safety – are impossible for bloggers to really cover. Then again, the major networks didn’t even have Kabul bureaus for years, even though we had a war going on in Afghanistan. Good job, guys. This begs the question: Should the MSM actually cover active US warzones? No? Err…

Finally, we discuss a couple of those nutty stories in the past year – balloon boy, the arrest of the Harvard Professor for being black and in his home, what kind of beer Obama is drinking… you know, real stories. With things like these dominating MSM coverage, don’t we need a filter for all these non-stories? (I’m told this filter is usually called “editors.” Never heard of ‘em.) And as we distribute, and redistribute, news and content, shouldn’t we ourselves take some responsibility and ask, “Is this news good for us?”

Listen to the show here, subscribe to the iTunes podcast, or use the Blog Talk Radio player to the right.

Wilshire & Washington, the weekly Blog Talk Radio program that explores the intersection of politics, entertainment, and new media, features co-hosts Ted Johnson, Managing Editor of Variety; conservative blogger Teresa Valdez Klein (www.teresacentric.com), and liberal blogger Maegan Carberry (www.maegancarberry.com). The show airs every Wednesday at 7:30am PST on BlogTalkRadio.com.

Can the online innovations in entertainment TV change the game in politics and news as well? Look inside the Wilshire & Washington crystal-ball with special guests Miles Beckett & Greg Goodfried, the creators of the new CBS social TV event, Harper’s Island, and founders of Eqal. These two online impresarios first came to the world’s attention with the mega-Youtube hit, LonelyGirl15, pulling in audiences in the millions when regular TV shows were being canceled left and right. And now they’re turning their attention to modernizing the studio TV system: How can TV make it in the internet era, and can new technology offer greater creator-control, and therefore better art? Can TV networks (and the news) modernize and take advantage of all the cost-cutting technology out there, hopefully abandoning their old (and expensive) way of doing business? It’s a fascinating discussion with these new hotshots in the entertainment field, so don’t miss this!

Hosts Ted Johnson, Maegan Carberry, and Teresa Valdez-Klein also talk President Obama’s First 100 Days in Office. Why is 100 days our big measuring stick? Isn’t that metric (divisible by 10) and therefore communist? Has there ever been a more over-examined, and less important, event on the blogosphere? Most people are down with what Obama’s doing and know to keep their expectations in check. The dude’s practically a Vulcan in how even-keel he is, which does keep us all calm in this economic panic (according to Teresa, everyone’s favorite Star Trek fan). Still, should the prez maybe show a little enthusiasm to get us more involved again, like during the election? Do things like Serve.gov and Organizing for America have too much of an Orwellian feel for people to really embrace?

Finally, we’ve got the Arlen Specter switcheroo. Specter did go after Senator Jim Jeffords a couple years ago when Jeffords switched parties, so is this hypocrisy, even though it’s not like the Republican Party has been friendly to politicians like Specter in the last couple of years? Was it courageous? Disloyal? Politically opportunistic? And does this reveal the real problem with our system: the constraints of political parties on intelligent politicians? Join us for all this in today’s Wilshire & Washington!

Listen to the show here, subscribe to the iTunes podcast, or use the Blog Talk Radio player to the right.

Wilshire & Washington, the weekly Blog Talk Radio program that explores the intersection of politics, entertainment, and new media, features co-hosts Ted Johnson, Managing Editor of Variety; conservative blogger Teresa Valdez Klein (www.teresacentric.com), and liberal blogger Maegan Carberry (www.maegancarberry.com). The show airs every Wednesday at 7:30am PST on BlogTalkRadio.com.