Go bigtime with Rachel Marsden

At midnight tonight, Rachel Marsden launches GrandCentralPolitical.com, an ambitious effort to create a unique online opportunity for political activists:

“Anyone in the industry – or wanting to start a career in politics or political media -- can sign up for free and get their very own page on the site, in about 2 minutes. They can upload their resume, headshot, YouTube video demo, and experience, and be scouted by media outlets looking for guests, companies looking for lobbyists -- or politicians, public relations firms and even agents seeking new talent,” explains Marsden. “If they want, they can actively search for opportunities, and contribute to the bipartisan, international political magazine to showcase their talent to decision makers.”

Marsden is seeking to expand on the basic Hayekian insight of the blogosphere: The political elite don't have a monopoly on intelligence, knowledge or skill:

• The facts you know are as valid as (and perhaps more valid than) whatever's on the op-ed page of the New York Times or The Washington Post.
• Some ordinary guy with a cheap video camera and QuickTimePro can make a political ad as effective as anything produced by the big-money professionals.
• There is no reason why the cable networks must keep scheduling the same boring talking heads over and over, when there are literally thousands of activists capable of adding important insights to the discourse.

When Rachel told me about her idea, I was sufficiently intrigued that I volunteered to write a series of columns for her site, explaining (a) why the establishment punditocracy is fading and (b) why you can't become the next superstar pundit overnight just by blogging.

If you read my columns and say, "He's full of crap! I could write better stuff than that," that's exactly my point: How come I'm a professional journalist -- I get paid to write this crap -- and you're not? GrandCentralPolitical.com is about hooking people up with opportunities to get paid to do the stuff they already know how to do.

I haven't seen the site yet, but it was designed by TCVMedia, so it's got to be good.