Can BTAFE Decide Who Is Bonafide Press?
August 16, 2007
David Codrea, War on Guns, brings up a good point today in an article that headlines, “It’s Not Up to BATFU to Deem Journalists Legitimate”. His reference is to the complaint that the BATFE filed against Red’s Trading Post that they were being harassed by the manager Ryan Horsley and in particular one 70-year old man who was taking pictures.
Codrea points out that the BATFE stated in their complaint that this man taking pictures wasn’t a credentialed news person or photographer (or at least that he didn’t look like one and therefore they felt threatened). Perhaps not, but he also refers to precedence set when the federal government recognized bloggers as an “authorized press” agent and granted them two seats at the Scooter Libby trial. My good friend and fellow blogger for Skinny Moose Media, Lance Dutson(Maine Web Report), was one of the bloggers who got the chance to sit in one of those chairs and live-blog some of the trial.
Wouldn’t it make sense then that since the federal government, with whom the BATFE is supposed to be a part of, recognizes blogging as a legitimate form of press coverage, then BATFE would have a difficult time profiling to say that the photographer didn’t look like a journalist?
Interesting stuff here and another example of how blogging and citizen journalism is changing the way Americans do business.
Tom Remington
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My feeling is that blogging will become recognized more and more as “legitimate” journalism in the next few years. I think bloggers will start organizing themselves and start pushing for recognition. I also think more groups will spring up to work for the rights of bloggers.
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If you don’t “look” like a journalist then you can be charged with harrassment? What does a real journalist look like anyway?
On the flip side, there is a lesson to be learned here by bloggers, too. If you want to be taken seriously, you probably ought to look serious. I’m not commenting about the above event specifically, just stating that we need to make sure if we are representing ourselves as media that we look respectable. When people don’t know you, they base their opinion on how you look. May not be right, but it is the way it is.