Comments on: Blogging Making Publications Bans Impossible To Enforce? http://www.blogherald.com/2007/01/31/blogging-making-publications-bans-impossible-to-enforce/ The leading source of news covering social media and the blogosphere. Mon, 13 Feb 2012 09:18:59 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: tish grier http://www.blogherald.com/2007/01/31/blogging-making-publications-bans-impossible-to-enforce/comment-page-1/#comment-155913 tish grier Thu, 01 Feb 2007 12:53:19 +0000 http://www.blogherald.com/2007/01/31/blogging-making-publications-bans-impossible-to-enforce/#comment-155913 I recently spoke with Paul Sullivan, the editor-in-chief of Orato.com for Online journalism Review (www.ojr.org)....Orato's sent only two citizen correspondents (as Sullivan refers to them) who were accredited, to the trial--not the swarm that you are suggesting. It's also very clear that Orato's coverage of the trial is from the first-person perspective. Put side by side with the official dry news reports, it presents *a* perspective on the trial. I think most people who are reading Orato know what they are reading is a personal perspective, and, quite frankly, the perspective--esp. from the types of women who were vicitimized by Pickton--is fresh and enlightening. Further, the women know their responsibilities and to presume that they are going to do something untoward is really pretty low on your part, Tony. They know their positions are trusted positions, and they know that they're NOT working for a Canadian version of the National Enquirerer. I don't believe that either of these women are going to violate an important trust. The hissy fit in the Ottowa Citizen is just another hissy fit on the part of the formal press. They need to get over it and move on. Oh, and the form for accrediting reporters for the Pickton Trial is available online in a PDF. It's not that complicated a form to fill out, really...and if there is a legit assignment given to a reporter by a legit publication, it's up to the courts to decide to accredit them. The Orato citizen correspondents, like any other correspondent, could have been refused. They weren't. Further, two American bloggers have been credentialled to cover the Scooter Libby trial. The Media Bloggers Association has worked to help get these two credentialled. On another point, there is nothing that says that citizens cannot become bona fide journalists. Reporters have risen from the ranks of citizens for centuries. Journalism is an art, not a form of rocket science where one needs an exacting education, formal exams, and a license to perform it. What one truly needs is a decent command of language and a good moral compass. And not all good journalism is traditional. How about Hunter S. Thompson's "gonzo journalism" and the writing of Tom Wolfe? I recently spoke with Paul Sullivan, the editor-in-chief of Orato.com for Online journalism Review (www.ojr.org)….Orato’s sent only two citizen correspondents (as Sullivan refers to them) who were accredited, to the trial–not the swarm that you are suggesting. It’s also very clear that Orato’s coverage of the trial is from the first-person perspective. Put side by side with the official dry news reports, it presents *a* perspective on the trial. I think most people who are reading Orato know what they are reading is a personal perspective, and, quite frankly, the perspective–esp. from the types of women who were vicitimized by Pickton–is fresh and enlightening. Further, the women know their responsibilities and to presume that they are going to do something untoward is really pretty low on your part, Tony. They know their positions are trusted positions, and they know that they’re NOT working for a Canadian version of the National Enquirerer.

I don’t believe that either of these women are going to violate an important trust. The hissy fit in the Ottowa Citizen is just another hissy fit on the part of the formal press. They need to get over it and move on.

Oh, and the form for accrediting reporters for the Pickton Trial is available online in a PDF. It’s not that complicated a form to fill out, really…and if there is a legit assignment given to a reporter by a legit publication, it’s up to the courts to decide to accredit them. The Orato citizen correspondents, like any other correspondent, could have been refused. They weren’t.

Further, two American bloggers have been credentialled to cover the Scooter Libby trial. The Media Bloggers Association has worked to help get these two credentialled.

On another point, there is nothing that says that citizens cannot become bona fide journalists. Reporters have risen from the ranks of citizens for centuries. Journalism is an art, not a form of rocket science where one needs an exacting education, formal exams, and a license to perform it. What one truly needs is a decent command of language and a good moral compass. And not all good journalism is traditional. How about Hunter S. Thompson’s “gonzo journalism” and the writing of Tom Wolfe?

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