BlogHer, the LAPD and Your Right to Cover News

I'm not sure how the LAPD can not issue Blogher a press pass. There needs to be some kind of standards set up in regards to who gets a press pass and who does not and not, you're online so you don't get one or we don't like what you talk about is not a standard.

I would like to know which blogs did get press passes.

Browne Molyneux, Lipstick LA

I like the point you make Erin, that bloggers and online media are press regardless of their background. We are all able to give different perspectives and report from different angles. We all have something to say, points to make.

I'm still miffed with the LAPD. You and Katy did such a wonderful job last night. I wish you had been give the opportunity to feature the GOP side as well.

Brian it's fantastic to see you in this forum. Thank you so much for your kind words and for the LAFD's willingness to step into social media, like the department's blog.

You and the LAFD were always a pleasure to work with-and as BlogHer continues to discuss and cover everything from Mommy and Family to news, I have no doubt we'll be on scene together once again.

Politics & News Contributing Editor
Queen of Spain ( http://queenofspainblog.com/ )

Erin,

Thanks for your many years of local journalism, and especially your willingness to share an awkward but compelling story.

Respectfully Yours in Safety and Service,

Brian Humphrey
Firefighter/Specialist
Public Service Officer
Los Angeles Fire Department

LAFD News Blog: http://lafd.org/blog

I was trying to get into tonight's debates and hadn't even thought of using my "blogger" creds. I got all kinds of emails/texts/IMs this morning chastising me for not using my blogger credentials. Then a friend of mine who works at CNN asked, "Is there a reason you didn't try to pull your old press pass?" Eek! I had completely forgotten about my radio and magazine work, as I didn't consider it "real".

The other bloggers who did get their passes, don't necessarily have widely read blogs, many of them get less hits than mine, but they are journalists and get printed all the time. Therefore, they're not really seen as "bloggers", but as journalists who happen to have a blog.

"I am so perfect so divine so ethereal so surreal. I cannot be comprehended except by my permission. I mean...I...can fly like a bird in the sky." Ego Trippin' by Nikki Giovanni
Visit me at faboo mama ( http://faboomama.wordpress.com/ )

That's how it used to be eons ago when I was getting my credentials.

"I am so perfect so divine so ethereal so surreal. I cannot be comprehended except by my permission. I mean...I...can fly like a bird in the sky." Ego Trippin' by Nikki Giovanni
Visit me at faboo mama ( http://faboomama.wordpress.com/ )

While it is wonderful that the internet has created a world where we can divulge and read information from a multitude of angles, is it journalism?

What is the definition of journalism? That we are paid for it or that we have a certificate or that we are hired by a 'legitimate' news source?

I think some of that has to be taken into consideration still.....this may be the information age, but having some way to sort the information out there can be helpful.

Not saying that paid news is 'real' news. It just helps to filter the information and the source for the average reader out there.

We are BOMBARDED by information now. With a myriad of agendas attached.

I think online media needs to be recognized for sure...but then there needs to be TYPES of online media....what is a 'news' source and what is 'free information' or something.

Then you have to look at professionalism and ethics IN online media and so on and so on.

Anyway, I lost my train of thought.....

Look for me at http://crunchycarpets.com or check out the ladies at www.wetcoastwomen.com ( http://www.wetcoastwomen.com )

Hi Jill and Erin....

I'm definitely saying let's drop the "vs" thing--let's stop trying to make one kind of
use of these tools more "populist" than the other.

The way I see it, blogging and journalism may exist for different reasons, and one isn't superior. You can be a journalist who knows how to keep a blog and a blogger whose done some journalism on the side. But the overall reasons and motivations for doing each can be very different.

When I write my blog (and one of the reasons for my blog) is to raise points for conversation. I also hate structured writing...

Blogging, IMO, is about exchanging ideas, the art of conversation in a new medium, and cammeraderie. Not about reporting--not about Journalism as it is taught nor perhaps how it is practiced as a profession. And the reason I go in and "cover" an event might be for different reasons than a journalist might have.

The problem, then, in the minds of the powers that be is with the People's conversations going further and gaining more influence beyond the local diner, as much as it is with the hybrid.

I'm sure that the LAPD would have rejected someone with no journalism background who wanted to gain access and write about the debates--and could find more than just bogus reasons to do it. Today, there is a desperate need to control the message and to keep people from talking more than ever before. There's a complete distrust of The People by many institutions both in and outside of the government--and not just in this kind of an instance--that is troubling. We need all sorts of documentation to "prove" that we're citizens when a soc. sec. number used to suffice. So, when it comes down to it, it may end up being easier for orgs like the MBA to help former-and-now-independent journalists like John Spinelli than to help People gain access.

But will we know this if the people fighting for those creds never tell us that they're now or in the past journalists? Or if journalists keep splitting hairs over who in their own profession is or isn't a journalist and thus shut out the independent blogger with their own arguing? The "vs" thing has got to go before we lose a whole lot more than we realize in this moment.

Tish Grier
blogger/consultant/writer
the Constant Observer ( http://spap-oop.blogspot.com )

I think we need to be careful when discussing Journalism. Which is why I framed my question as "Are bloggers Press?"

I find bloggers and all online media to be press regardless of their backgrounds. As much as I may not like tabloid press, something like a TMZ or what not, I still think they are media-for better or worse. They cover celeb trials better than other outlets I can name, and frankly should be credentialed to get inside the courtroom. Saves us newsies from having to do it, too.

The reason I find my journalist background prudent to this case isn't because I think someone without it should be out in the cold, but because i'st affording me the opportunity to have already been vetted by the LAPD and deemed NOT a terrorist or trouble maker. If the LAPD's reasoning for failing to credential bloggers based on not knowing if they will pull a "Gizmodo"- my previous background check by them, which was approved, deems their argument invalid.

Had I been a self-made blogger, with no history with the LAPD, I would have filed for a new press pass, and been subject to the checks, etc.

I think it's valid to want to know what LAPD would have done with someone applying for the first time, and it's my understanding they are denying those requests as well.

Politics & News Contributing Editor
Queen of Spain ( http://queenofspainblog.com/ )

You make a very good point.

My experience in Ohio has been that I've been a journalist - was on the SPJ board until earlier this month, and I've called myself a freelance writer, editor and blogger. I haven't called myself a journalist so much only because I do not have a formal education in it but I don't think I shy away from using it - but your post is making me be more thoughtful about that, certainly going forward. I'm proud of the journalism work AND the blogging work I do.

John Spinelli was indeed a traditional journalist with full credentials who now does his work online. Bill Sloat is another journalist who is now a blogger and he is well-known as being both.

I don't actually know specifically of anyone in Ohio who has tried to hide the journalism part of their work. I've experienced the problem more as one that involves a resistance to accepting hybrids - not knowing what to do with people who have multiple platforms on which they work or provide their writing. And this is a familiar problem to me because when I was finishing up grad school with a jt degree in law and social work, I often had people say, "That's so interesting! But we don't where we'd "put" you."

I don't know if any of that is helpful - I think you and I are pretty much promoting the same thing - just get rid of the labels, but also, I think you are saying, drop the "versus" part too?

Jill
Writes Like She Talks ( http://www.writeslikeshetalks.blogspot.com )

I always wonder why it is that people who used to be "official" journalists want to hide that fact underneath the blogger mantle. What's with the denials and lack of transparency? The simple fact that someone has been a journalist is quite different from some of us who's started blogging and built their reputation in this medium without ever being any where near a journalism class or newsroom...

It's similar with the Ohio folks, who also are journalists. They are now working independently, and perhaps it's this independence that the establish press hates--not that they are "bloggers."

Rarely do I see former journalists who are now bloggers ever mention that they have been journalists. Why is that? And if they did mention this small fact, esp. in a situation like this, would the outcome be different?

In other words: if journalists who are in new media stopped hiding behind the term "blogger," and mentioned that they used to be press, would they get their press creds without a fight?

Perhaps this really isn't a question of "is blogging journalism?" or "are bloggers journalists?" inasmuch as it is whether or not journalists who are now independent and using different tools are perceived differently from journalists who are still employed by newspapers.

And the sway that old media and other power structures have in our supposedly "free" press...

So pleas stop phrasing these sorts of issues as a blogger/journalist thing or an "is blogging journalism" thing. That's just clouding something that might be more a war among journalists of different stripes. In the end, independent, self-made bloggers like myself might still get stuck out in the cold when it comes to press passes.

Tish Grier
blogger/consultant/writer
The Constant Observer
http://spap-oop.blogspot.com

As Jill pointed out, the battle here in Ohio over who is a "responsible reporter" for purposes of Statehouse accreditation, which provides the privilege of access to the floors of the Senate and House, is just beginning. To catch up on the four-month volley between the OhioNews Bureau of ePluribus Media.org ( http://discuss.epluribusmedia.net/blog/538 ) and the Statehouse press corps (a.ka. the Ohio Legislative Correspondents Association or OLCA) that ended in our being rejected based on their subjective judgment that we are "politically biased" and do not "adhere to the high standards of journalism" found in their constitution, check it out here ( http://discuss.epluribusmedia.net/node/453 ).

Jill also pointed out that in addition to not letting a former three-year member-in-good-standing like me into their ranks who would constitute their first ever new-media journalist, the president of the group told me in an email Wednesday that he wouldn't even grant me the courtesy of a one-day press pass to cover Ohio Governor Ted Strickland's State of the State address on February 6th. He provided no other explanation. But given the "no further comment" response we received from him on behalf of his board to important questions we asked in seeking more understanding of why we werre rejected, I wasn't surprised by his totally inadequate and lame decision. He then directed me to the House gallery, which is open to the public, to cover the governor's address.

Meanwhile, in our view, he and his board members are in stark violation of not enforcing the conflict of interest provisions in the group's constitution and bylaws. Nearly all their member reporters work for newspapers that belong to the Ohio Newspaper Association, which lobbies the legislature. A reporter cannot have business before the legislature, nor can the organization they work for. But that's exactly the case, as we see it. Furthermore, OLCA's constitution has no specific language defining what constitute "high standards of journalism," the basis upon which we were denied membership. Clearly, new-media journalists and bloggers are held to different standards.

The Statehouse press corps has won the first two skirmishes of credentialing; but the battle is just starting. I think they've lit the fuse that will come back to blow up their vested-interest redoubt of exclusion.

Through Jill's help, Bob Cox at Media Bloggers Association contacted me and offered his help. New-media journalists like myself and those who have commented here should be proud of blazing new trails, challenging media monasteries like OLCA or the LAPD and advancing the notion that you don;'t have to work for a legacy print media group or kowtow to unreasonable or politically jaundiced gatekeepers to be a responsible and respected journalist.

If anyone has ideas or suggestions for tactics or strategies we should employ going forward, we'd love to hear from you. Contact us at ohionews@epluribusmedia.org. John Michael Spinelli, OhioNews Bureau Chief (the "gentleman" Jill referred to in her post).

Over at Red Stapler ( http://redstapler23.blogspot.com ). My main point is that I get ALL my news, outside of NPR, online, not via print or TV.

Honestly.

One more example, I'd say of the proverbial "digital divide" - where those who are not interactive and involved online have no idea of the impact that the online press has.

"What? You mean people read the news online? You're kidding right?"

Hoping they figure it out sooner rather than later. Looking forward to seeing how this progresses.

L Pruitt
Raising a child in a digital world, still a digital girl

Thanks, my head is still spinning and Poynter was on my list.

Thanks,

Erin

Politics & News Contributing Editor
Queen of Spain ( http://queenofspainblog.com/ )

Nelle,
The LAPD's excuses are bogus. When Laurie and I went to DCin June to cover the All American Democratic Candidates' forum, the Secret Service ran background checks on 20 of us in less than 24 hours. Similarly, we were credentialed very quickly to cover the Scooter Libby trial last February. The Department of Homeland Security has spent considerable sums on local law enforcement, in California and elsewhere. If the LAPD has an antiquated system for something this simple, what else are they lagging behind on?

Erin, I hope you are sending a note to Jim Romenesko, in addition to your call to Bob Cox.

Kim
BlogHer Contributing Editor ( http://www.blogher.com/blog/kim-pearson )|Professor Kim ( http://professorkim.blogspot.com )|

So yep, count me in for a tale or two or "LAPD does not like different." Twice in my younger days I was tear-gassed and hit with batons. My crime? Being a punk rock kid at a concert.

Sigh. Glad to hear they've evolved so much in 20 years.

PopConsumer ( http://consumerpop.typepad.com/popconsumer )
Beyond Help ( http://mariax.vox.com/ )

As soon as I can calm down enough to put a couple of thoughts together I'll write something.

karoli (odd time signatures ( http://drumsnwhistles.com ))

And the RTNDA tells me relations between media and LAPD really, really went south after the scuffle.

I should note I was also involved in the LAPD and media tussle outside of the Democratic National Convention in 2000. I was clubbed by an officer on the back as I was fleeing with protesters (despite having a microphone, tape recorder, press pass, etc) and actually had a bruise to show for it on my wedding day in August. I did not take action against the LAPD, as I was more caught up at the time in my wedding and honeymoon, but other reporters did.

Politics & News Contributing Editor
Queen of Spain ( http://queenofspainblog.com/ )

on this post was how kewl it was for BlogHer to be really getting into the teeth of news as it happens, never expecting to read a story of denial.

I'm not a member of the media, nor of law enforcement, and am not about to pretend I can easily cipher the issues, difficulties, etc necessary to gain admittance. As a woman who comes here to read enlightened opinion from a pov that is the lifeblood of my existence, it is very disconcerting those charged as able and willing to bring us information directly from the event are shut out by what appears to be sort of a misguided power play.

How difficult can it be in this day and age, when I can write this post and have it instantaneously available to all who come here, in an age where technology gives instant access to so much that is confidential, when the internet is right there for searching, when a phone call to BlogHer management is but 11 or 12 numbers pressed on a keypad away... for them to get this done?

I've a pretty good hunch this won't happen 4 years from now.

nelle ( http://www.nelle2nelle.org/ )

I was at the May Day 2007 Latino Rights rally in MacArthur Park. There were bloggers, traditional news and television media. There were families and protesters but everyone was well behaved.

As I was about to leave you could see the tension shift. LAPD had had enough and wanted the area cleared. They started stroking the batons and assumed battle positions.

I got the hell out of the park before they started whacking on bloggers, families, traditional news and television media. It is well documented.

MSMBC 2:10 minutes http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x52-7SXbSP8
Democracy Now 9 minutes http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivn8PrZlAXo

LAPD does not like different. You do it their way. I know you think that there are rights and responsibilities and you had complied with the proper documentation. If they don't want it to happen it doesn't mean jack.

If the person at the desk was told to restrict or prevent "online media" then that was the line and they will not yield. The word "flexible" is not in there vocabulary.

You will get your documentation. Unless external forces prevail look for it about 2013.

Gena - Out On The Stoop ( http://outonthestoop.blogspot.com )

The RRLibrary and the GOP announced the debate with CNN, more specifically they announced how to get credentials, weeks before the event.

Anyone who needed to go through any law enforcement process, LAPD or otherwise, would be subject to background checks that take months.

As Katy and I have already been through the process, we went to LAPD for our 'law enforcement' credentials seeing as they had us on file and any other law enforcement entity in the state would take months to run the checks.

LAPD was the fastest way for us to get official media law enforcement credentials in the time frame from when the requirements to attend were announced. Any law enforcement pass would have been fine, out of state or otherwise.

Politics & News Contributing Editor
Queen of Spain ( http://queenofspainblog.com/ )

The Reagan Library is in Ventura County, not LA County. That's INSANE.

I will have much more to say about this as soon as I can get some more info.

karoli (odd time signatures ( http://drumsnwhistles.com ))

I was told the "system" they use at media relations is notecards, and as a reporter changes stations or publications, they simply move the notecard from one file to the next. So it sounds like they may be behind the times in more than one area.

Politics & News Contributing Editor
Queen of Spain ( http://queenofspainblog.com/ )

Thanks Jill.

We've spent the past 48 hours scrambling with local/state officials that I had not even thought of the Media Bloggers Association. I will involve and inform them as we move forward.

Erin

Politics & News Contributing Editor
Queen of Spain ( http://queenofspainblog.com/ )

I'm so frustrated. Why, oh why, is the LAPD making it so darn difficult!

It's even more crummy that they put you through the run around. Ugh. I'm so glad you're in tomorrow, though!

I may cross-post it everywhere I blog...and you know that's a lot of places!

As I said in my personal blog post ( http://homepage.mac.com/elisa_camahort/iblog/C7882... ):

Why so afraid? Why so very, very afraid? Put on your big boy or big girl pants and look around you. The world has changed. Online and nontraditional media counts. And you are missing the boat.

Elisa Camahort
BlogHer
elisa@blogher.org

Erin - has anyone involved Bob at all?

Also - note on a similar theme: here in Ohio, a gentleman who was once credentialed (for three years) by the Ohio Legislative Correspondents Assn. has now been turned down not only for being credentialed for his work on ePluribus Media, which is an online news association, but now, he has learned that the OLCA has turned down his request for a one day pass just to hear the governor's state of the state.

This kind of exclusion, after going through the rigamarole is so pointless. Thanks for taking the time to write about it. Argh.

Jill
Writes Like She Talks ( http://www.writeslikeshetalks.blogspot.com )