A Comment On Blogging And The Media

In the past few weeks much has been made about blogger accountability and mainstream media's exclusive accessibility.

It all stems from an incident involving the Edmonton Oiler blog Covered in Oil. He acted inappropriately and had his press passes revoked. James Mirtle has a pretty good run down. Eric McErlain also weighs in. Greg Wyshynski also chimes in.

Like most other bloggers who have commented, they all tend to have the same view point that bloggers, aka the new media, should be granted press credentials. Such passes should not be exclusively for the mainstream media.

I do not know if I agree with that. I think there are a few bloggers out there that have proven themselves trustworthy enough that they should be granted special privileges. Their professionalism makes up for their lack of formal training.

But I do not think bloggers should expect to have credentials granted just because they happen to have a blog. Look at me. I may pass myself off around here as the Hockey History Blogger, but I'm also a freelance hockey writer, authoring articles for the likes of The Hockey News and Hockey Canada. And I've written two internationally published books. But it is very rare that I can get a press pass.

What I don't understand is how some members of the mainstream media can actually keep their credentials. Sean Leahy talks about the latest Al Strachan shenanigans. Strachan has been making up stuff for years, drawing the ire of Brian Burke and many others long before pissing off Len Barrie with his blatant lies. Strachan has done far worse damage than most bloggers, including Covered in Oil and maybe even more than our most controversial blogging cohort Eklund.