With the national explosion of partisan political blogs and shady, fly-by-night websites offering purposely skewed and inaccurate interpretations of hard news events, I recently asked the Secretary of the Senate to put together a definition of what qualifies as a legitimate journalist.This man is an idiot. A dangerous idiot. That he's a Republican is irrelevant to me, his idea is inimical to a free press and a free people.
My concern focused on the confusion that could result if a number of partisan bloggers requested official credentials to cover legislative happenings from the press rooms located in the rear of each chamber at the State House.
Allowing agenda-driven bloggers the same access and legitimacy as serious, long-established and unbiased reporters could soon create a confusing, circus-like atmosphere and blur the line between promoting opinions and reporting facts.
Sunday, December 07, 2014
Freedom of the Press
Our Constitution speaks of freedom of the press, not freedom for the "institutional press" or freedom for "professional journalists". Thomas Paine was not a journalist, he merely published an influential pamphlet:
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2 comments:
I don't think he's and idiot; not everyone who writes a blog gets a White House press pass. Not everyone who writes for an established newspaper or tv show gets one, either. But -- I will agree that it doesn't seem like a really good precedent to establish that certain people couldn't get them, ever … even if they won't, ever. so no to the definition … just continue to not provide them to those without credible backgrounds.
"...serious, long-established and unbiased reporters could soon create a confusing, circus-like atmosphere and blur the line between promoting opinions and reporting facts."
Is that how Media Matters and the NYT get their quotes?
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