Pressing responsibilities

While glancing through the YearlyKos website after registering, I noticed a little piece on the website which mentioned building a database of bloggers attending the meeting.  The purpose, it was said, was to compile a blog media list and to enable regional blog colleagues or bloggers interested in similar topics to get in touch with each other.  So I duly sent in my collection of blog locations—Peace Tree Farm, Evergreen Politics, and WashBlog—and thought that was that.

So I was quite surprised a couple of weeks later, when I received a message from the YearlyKos people informing me that my media credentials would be waiting for me at the registration desk.  Me?  Media credentials?  What in heaven’s name were they thinking?

I found out shortly after arriving at the Riviera to register.  My badge does indeed have that little green “Press” ribbon, which entitles me to step into the media room, just like Byron York, just like Adam Nagourney, just like the guys from newspapers and TV stations.  I’m writing this from the media room, as a matter of fact.  It was quite crowded when I walked in, as Barbara Boxer was finishing up a brief press conference following her keynote speak at lunch.  Now it’s cleared out, so I can plug in to replenish the battery of my laptop.  And I can pick up press kits, grab a soda or a bag of chips, sit down and bat this out in relative comfort.

Why did people like me receive press credentials?  One of the organizers had the answer for me—they very strongly wished to demonstrate to the MSM that blogs are media too.  Professional journalists don’t get treated better than us amateurs simply by virtue of getting paid to write stuff.  And high-prestige, widely-read bloggers aren’t treated better than us nobodies simply by virtue of their impressive sitemeters.  So I get swept along in the tide.

While I’ve been here writing this post in the media room, I’ve had brief conversations with some of the others working on stuff here, including Pachacutec of firedoglake, Bob Geiger of Democrats.com, a reporter from the Cox Newspapers, Stirling Newberry of BOP News, and others.  They’re hardly the only conversations going on in here.

It still seems more than just a little bit incongrous to me, but I’m not about to tear that ribbon off of my badge.

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Cross-posted everywhere I can post to…

Comments

I just wanted to let you know my colleagues enjoyed meeting you tonight and spoke highly of you.  I also wanted to send you the link to the recording of Senator Reid from tonight’s keynote address.  I thought he did a dynamic job.  Feel free to post the recording on your site (if you like) or even link to it.  The address is:

http://www.evoca.com/everyone_recording.jsp?rid=9283

I look forward to reading your site in the future.

Andrew.

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This post and your others about YKos make me wish I had been able to attend.

I’m missing SABR Seattle too, but 2007 St. Louis seems likely (depending upon the dates).

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