{"id":118797,"date":"2016-01-20T14:38:13","date_gmt":"2016-01-20T21:38:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=118797"},"modified":"2016-01-21T11:38:38","modified_gmt":"2016-01-21T18:38:38","slug":"temporary-blogger-ban-picks-scab-off-bloggerpress-issue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2016\/01\/temporary-blogger-ban-picks-scab-off-bloggerpress-issue\/","title":{"rendered":"Temporary ‘blogger’ ban picks scab off blogger\/press issue"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A<\/a>

Heath Haussamen \/ NMPolitics.net<\/p>

A statue outside the Roundhouse in Santa Fe.<\/p><\/div>\n

COMMENTARY:<\/strong> Scab picked off blogger\/press issue.<\/p>\n

Some yet-to-be identified person, acting without any authority save their own, took it upon him or her self to ban \u201cbloggers<\/a>\u201d from a space reserved for \u201cthe press\u201d on Tuesday at the Roundhouse.<\/p>\n

\"Ched<\/a>

Mark Bralley<\/p>

Ched MacQuigg<\/p><\/div>\n

Although the sign was hung without the backing, permission or even the knowledge of the people who have the authority to post signs, the underlying issues are real enough.<\/p>\n

There are those who believe \u201cbloggers\u201d are not entitled to the same First Amendment protection as members of \u201cthe press.\u201d It\u2019s an issue that needs settling as both bloggers and \u201cthe press\u201d are under attack and need to be standing together rather than divided.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s time to take a step back to arrive at some consensus, at least of the meaning of the terms we\u2019re using.\u00a0 What is a \u201cblogger,\u201d and by what justifiable criteria are they materially different from \u201cthe press?\u201d<\/p>\n

What are \u201ccredentials?\u201d Who decides what they are and who gets to distribute them?<\/p>\n

The press and bloggers are on the same side. Both our accesses are being increasingly obstructed by politicians and public servants needing to hide the truth, whatever it is, from stake- and interest-holders.<\/p>\n

We have to consider that we both have interests to protect — and most of the most important ones are interests in common.<\/p>\n

Those who would rather that both bloggers and \u201cthe press\u201d remain ignorant of what goes on in meetings in secret would rather deal with \u201cthe press\u201d for at least two reasons:<\/p>\n

They would argue, for one, that a higher caliber of reporting can be expected from those who have expressed or implied accountability to the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics<\/a>. It bears noting that, by the SPJs own free admission, its\u00a0code of ethics is utterly unenforceable. There is no enforceable standard that requires \u201cthe press\u201d to abide by the standards. The issue of journalistic ethics is more of a red herring than real issue.<\/p>\n

More importantly, there is an arrangement in place between powerful people and their media friends: In exchange for access, the truth will manipulated in the interests of those granting access.<\/p>\n

Since bloggers have no access to begin with, they cannot be denied more access. Our lack of access can\u2019t get any worse, so we\u2019re unintimidated by their threats of denying any more access. We\u2019re free to publish harder hitting expos\u00e9s without fear of further restriction.<\/p>\n

Understandably, that makes politicians and public servants feel uncomfortable.\u00a0 Apparently, and for the same reason, many of the \u201caccredited\u201d press feel the same. By whom were they accredited? According to what criteria? By what authority?<\/p>\n

Senate Sergeant at Arms David Pacheco says his office is in charge of handing out \u201cpress passes.\u201d He says he provides them to news reporters who “show an employment ID\u201d or other \u201cID card from a news agency.\u201d Are those really the criteria that the founding fathers had in mind when they addressed the need to protect \u201cthe press\u201d from overbearing government?<\/p>\n

\n
\n

Ched MacQuigg<\/span> is a retired shop teacher and blogger<\/a>. He has been a longtime advocate of honest accountability to meaningful standards of conduct for politicians and public servants \u2014 in particular for the leadership of the Albuquerque Public Schools.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are those who believe \u201cbloggers\u201d are not entitled to the same First Amendment protection as members of \u201cthe press.\u201d It\u2019s an issue that needs settling as both bloggers and \u201cthe press\u201d are under attack and need to be standing together rather than divided.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":116565,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192,16],"tags":[3250,134,107],"class_list":["post-118797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","category-guest-columns","tag-2016-legislative-session","tag-media","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118797\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}