Will bloggers always be banned?

From a story on OregonLive.com:

"Who defines news?" he asked. "If somebody writes a column, is that news? Is there information in there that is newsworthy you wouldn't consider news? There's all kinds of shades in there. If I were a city council, I wouldn't want to be in a position to decide that."

The policy also raises the issue of whether the government should be in a position to legitimize a media organization or reporter, Randall said.

"The government shouldn't be controlling the media," he said. "What it gives, it can take away."

Yikes!! I would not want to be in that position either! This reminds me of "the war on Fox News". Who defines news? And should the government be in a position to define it or legitimize it?? No, thank you! What a sticky situation.

Obviously, with the growth of the Internet, rules and regulations regarding media must be changed. But maybe the whole view on media needs to change first. Why is the White House speaking out against a news channel simply because the channel is holding government officials accountable? Why is a blogger excluded from an executive session, when he or she is trying to get important information to his or her readers? Isn't it better to allow many voices into a debate? I believe the attitude toward media as a whole is going to shift in the upcoming years. More and more people become bloggers every day, and the elite and exclusionary group of media producers just won't be able to stay the same.

Disclaimer: Hope I am not offending anyone by including my political analysis in my blog posts. I find it easier and more fun to post if I am worked up about something. Obviously, you have the right to disagree. These are just my thoughts! :)

More on Fox

A quote from an LA Times article from today:

"Fox News executives said the administration is failing to distinguish between their commentators and news programs.

"They talk about the opinion shows and they say, 'See, you're not doing journalism,' " said Michael Clemente, the channel's senior vice president of news, calling the contention that Fox News is not a news organization a "smear."

"I think it reinforces the fact that on the news side, we're the people that will ask the right questions, whatever those questions are," he added."

A quote from a column on "Politics Daily" from 10/14/09:

"Last night Glenn Beck kept the back-and-forth going by showing off a special red phone he said he had installed for Dunn to call him directly. "If we got it wrong, we want to correct it," Beck said. "But if we didn't get it wrong, it looks like you're engaging in one of those -- what do you call it? A smear campaign. Anita, call me. You can call me at any time. We want to have a dialog.""

---I love that Glenn Beck did this. If the White House finds errors in Beck's show, they should let him know when it happens!! He might be outrageous, but it was clever.

Networks stand behind Fox!!

I heard today that the White House tried to block Fox News from an event where news outlets were interviewing "pay czar" Kenneth Feinberg. This in itself is pretty outrageous and newsworthy. How can the government do that? Sounds like something that would happen in a communist country, not the US. We don't like it when blogs are regarded as "not real media", and aren't issued press passes... so for the White House to block an actual TV news station is pretty ridiculous. What are they trying to hide???

The other newsworthy note is that the other networks that were there to conduct interviews refused to do it unless Fox was allowed in!!! I think this is a step in the right direction. If the White House can decide to block one outlet, who's to say that tomorrow they won't be blocking CNN, MSNBC or ABC? Media outlets everywhere should be outraged. The White House shouldn't get to decide who gets to know the news.

A quote from the article:

"What it's really about to me is the Executive Branch of the government trying to tell the press how it should behave. I mean, this democracy -- we know this -- only works with a free and unfettered press to provide information," he said.

Read the story @ Huffington here

Another good article on Huffington talks about how Fox's numbers keep going up.

A quote from it: "Having the president attack you is the best advertising in the world without having to spend a nickel on it."

Read it here, this one is pretty interesting.