Updated. See below fold.

If you have trouble imagining the establishment media speaking at CPAC -- although I do remember a slick Tim Russert and a prickly Ted Koppel attending one at the invitation of Accuracy in Media ten years ago -- it's not as hard to imagine "objective" reporters at the second annual lefty-blogger Yearly Kos convention, this year in Chicago. Mike Allen of the Politico (formerly of Time), Matt Bai of the New York Times Magazine (formerly of Newsweek) and Time deputy Washington bureau chief Jay Carney will all be speaking at the Chicago event. At the Huffington Post, blogger Ari Melber explains he will be moderating a let's-kiss-and-make-up panel on Friday between the media and bloggers featuring Allen and Carney:

I'm moderating a panel that will pair bloggers Glenn Greenwald and Jill Filipovic with The Politico's Mike Allen and Time magazine's Jay Carney, to discuss whether media-blog relations can evolve towards more constructive interactions. We're calling it "Blogs and the MSM: From Clash to Civilization."

Bai will help moderate a "presidential leadership forum" on Saturday. The Kosmonaut hosts boasted:

Organizers say the event—the first ever collaborative presidential forum with both a respected blogger and a leading member of the traditional media as moderators—is an opportunity to use technology to empower citizens to engage and evaluate America's potential leaders, both face-to-face and online. Many political candidates, including Edwards and Obama, already frequently use sites like Daily Kos to dialogue with the public.

Matt Bai, writer for The New York Times Magazine and author of a book on Democratic politics to be released in August, and Joan McCarter, contributing editor at Daily Kos, will moderate. Author and blogger Dr. Jeffrey Feldman will facilitate questions from convention attendees and those submitted in advance from tens of thousands of blog readers.

If former reporters count, there's also a pro-teacher's union conversation featuring Linda Perlstein, who was an education reporter for The Washington Post for five years.

It's quite weird, but the actual Yearly Kos promotional boilerplate makes the event sound nonpartisan -- except for all the Democratic speakers and hard-left bloggers, that is.

Update (Ken Shepherd | 17:17): Time.com's "Swampland" blog is hosting a party at Yearly Kos, according to a post by Time, Inc. employee Betsy Burton in a Facebook thread entitled "What do you think of the Yearly Kos convention?"

Swampland is hosting a party during the Yearly Kos convention. Let us know what you think about the convention. Has Bill O'Reilly hired a ghost writer as Joe Klein suggested: http://time-blog.com/swampland/2007/07/oreilly_unhinged.html#comments

—Tim Graham is Director of Media Analysis at the Media Research Center.