On Tap

My friend Rob Bluey has a great piece in the Hill today arguing that its time to establish a Capitol press gallery for online journalists.

For those reader who aren’t beltway junkies, reporters who cover Capitol Hill are provided their go-almost-anywhere credentials by one of three press galleries — print, periodical, or radio & television — based on what sort of outlet they work for. These galleries are administered by the reporters themselves.

Needless to say, that has made it next to impossible for even the most professional blogger to get credentials to cover the Capitol, and that makes it difficult to gather news and conduct interviews in key locations with members and their staffs.

Rob’s suggestion to create a new gallery in an outstanding one and one that I heartily endorse.

Go and read Rob’s whole piece and more from Rob on this topic on his blog. He makes a compelling case, and one that I hope the many members of Congress and their staffs — who claim to have embraced new media — will hasten to embrace.

Jim, as the only one us who has ever held actual Capitol Hill credentials, what say you?

Jim: I’m kinda “eh” on the idea. For starters, while it’s nice to have the credentials, the only place I can think of that you really can’t get to as a member of the public are the press gallery offices themselves (and its nice, but limited, workspace) and the set-aside spots in the galleries above the House and Senate floors. There are public galleries for both chambers, of course, and while a press pass gets you a table to work on in most hearing rooms, almost all hearings are open to the public on a first-come, first-serve basis. (The notable exception, of course, are hearings that deal with classified information.)

Here’s the other thing - at the kickoff fundraiser for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign in Washington, Code Pink protestors were taken away after chanting and protesting from the press risers at Hillary Clinton campaign events. Twice. In both cases, they claimed to be media. I don’t like this rampant credential-ism, but the actions of these loons is forcing the hands of event organizers.

As I’ve noted in previous posts, I’m less of a fan of what the blogosphere has become than I was a few years back. I don’t know if I trust bloggers to “police themselves” to behave in a professional manner. Even if you think a Congressman has made the stupidest comment of all time, your options are to a) point out a factual error and ask them to clarify or b) to ignore it and move on to the next question. There are lots of fine bloggers I trust, but a lot I wouldn’t trust to behave in a professional manner; I fear most press conferences would turn into the hallway confrontation that Congressman Obey had with those antiwar folks. Of course, once you started credentialing some bloggers and not others, people would start screaming “BIAS!”, etc.

So I foresee a lot of problems, but that’s just me…

Cam says: I too see a lot of problems, but I think it’s worthwhile. And, to be blunt, if there’s any place where “rampant credentialism” should be present, it should be in the Capitol. After all, freedom of the press is for all Americans, not just the one’s the government calls journalists.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 1st, 2007 at May 1, 2007 - 8:20 pm and is filed under 2008 Presidential Campaign, Media & Press, Politics, TV. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.