Why Bloggers Should Not Be Considered Journalists

New for 2008, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) added a new badge designation for attendees of the show. In addition to Press badges, they introduced a new Blogger badge. In recent years, bloggers that were accepted were given out Press badges giving them access to press only areas of the show. While it may seem like a great idea to distinguish bloggers from the press, it seems as though the badges were arbitrarily assigned with some bloggers getting press badges, while a journalist that writes for the New York Times was given a blogger badge because he also contributes to a blog.

Personally, I think all bloggers should be considered bloggers. Writers for large, well known blogs are still bloggers and should not be given press privileges. After watching a video of a juvenile prank by Gizmodo at CES you’ll probably agree. I’m all for having fun, and playing innocent pranks but theres a line, and it was definitely crossed in this prank and I wholeheartedly agreed with CEA’s reaction.

Richard Blakeley has been banned from all future CES events by CEA as revealed in a blog posting at CNET staffer Rafe Needleman posts CEA’s official response:

“We have been informed of inappropriate behavior on the show floor by a credentialed media attendee from the Web site Gizmodo, owned by Gawker Media. Specifically, the Gizmodo staffer interfered with the exhibitor booth operations of numerous companies, including disrupting at least one press event. The Gizmodo staffer violated the terms of CES media credentials and caused harm to CES exhibitors. This Gizmodo staffer has been identified and will be barred from attending any future CES events. Additional sanctions against Gizmodo and Gawker Media are under discussion.”

I guess the half-assed apology by Gizmodo’s editor wasn’t enough for CEA ;)

Did you like this post? If so share with others: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.