A Select Few Bloggers Make It To The Floor

by David Hatch

Thursday, Aug. 28, 2008


While many members of the press have had to ration passes to enter Denver's Pepsi Center during this week's Democratic National Convention, the red carpet has been rolled out for a select few.

These elites have joined their state delegations on the floor and used high-speed Internet hookups reserved for their laptops. They have filed reports from a special location in the Pepsi Center that is close to the action. And they have obtained backstage podium passes for exclusive interviews with powerful lawmakers leaving the main stage.

Are they network television anchors? Nationally known journalists? Try bloggers.

The Democratic National Committee has gone to great lengths to accommodate the roughly 500 bloggers it has credentialed for the 2008 gathering. While most are domestic, some traveled from as far as Argentina, Guam, Puerto Rico and Spain.

According to the DNC, these online scribes, whose credentials identify them as "press," are full-fledged journalists. "I think it's safe to say that plenty of media outlets have different standards," contended Aaron Myers, director of online communications for the convention committee.

But that is not the way many of the bloggers view themselves -- given that most have close ties to the party and a liberal tilt to their writings.

Richard Hellinga, who blogs at MichiganLiberal.com and is a member of his state's Democratic Party, said he is not an arm's-length journalist. "Political blogs are a conduit of information for party activists," he explained, noting that the sites help to frame issues and foster dialogue.

The DNC granted press accreditation to more than 125 blog sites, compared to only 30 in 2004. Another 275 sites were turned away, although some have found workspace in a downtown venue unaffiliated with the party.

While a bit cramped, the official bloggers' lounge in the Pepsi Center offers an excellent location, large-screen televisions and comfortable sofas. It is a notch up from the spartan media tents where traditional print and TV journalists endure dim lighting, porta-potties, shabby curtain dividers and even plywood flooring.

Writers with 55 of the credentialed blogs have been permitted to sit with their state delegations each night on the convention floor, giving them coveted access that would leave many news outlets envious.

Myers acknowledged that the DNC vetted the content of those sites, but insisted "there were no hard and fast rules, especially for the general core." A few blogs known to be highly critical of their state delegations were denied floor seating.

A quick check of dispatches filed this week turned up an ample supply of cheerleading. "Things are electric! A palatable sense of excitement. The band is jamming, music is loud," read a Wednesday entry in BlueHampshire.com.

But bloggers insisted they do not always toe the party line and are wary of becoming political pawns.

"Generally, the bloggers are more progressive, are more left wing," Hellinga said, noting that most have been highly critical of continued Iraq war funding "with no strings attached" as well as the compromise on warrantless wiretaps.

Another scribe, who writes under the pseudonym "bored now" for PrairieStateBlue.com out of Illinois, said bloggers respect "ethical boundaries" just as traditional reporters do. "You'll respect the line, and if you don't, you'll get slammed."

He and others noted that standards are sometimes lacking at traditional media outlets -- and that some bloggers do serious, objective reporting.

  •  
  •