Unfortunately, the incident was widely covered and discussed, and has served perhaps as a warning to other large organizations that want either keep the riff-raff of the blogosphere out of their events, or as an example for folks in the Old Media who want to show how what we do isn't really journalism. Personally, I'd say that neither of those trains of thought really track if you want to use the incident for those purposes, but as time goes on and the details of what happen fade from memory, I'm sure it'll be used for both.
The reason why I bring it up at all is that I caught an interesting post from techPresident by Micah Sifry today, announcing that the Democratic Party has enumerated in quite specific detail exactly what you must be to qualify as a member of the blogging press if you want to cover the upcoming Democratic Party Convention:
The DNCC will be credentialing one blogger from every state and territory (56 in all), as well as an undetermined number of national bloggers. "We're looking for people with political impact," Rosenberg says, adding that bloggers have to demonstrate that by listing their Technorati rank, including at least five links to political posts they've written. Only bloggers who have been active for at least six months and have written at least 120 political posts will be considered for the credentials.
I asked Rosenberg about the logistics of the event, and bottom line is come prepared with your own aircard: wifi inside the convention will be spotty at best, due to all the other electromagnetic noise inside the hall. As for whether the bloggers will be seated in the nosebleed section, as they were in Boston in 2004, he said no decisions on seating had been made yet.
I know from personal experience that covering political events as an online journalist can be a dicey affair, and more on that in a minute, but I can't help but wonder if the DNC announcement is somehow related to the CES incident. The announcement comes hot on the heels of the decision to bar the blogger from future CES events, and the requirements virtually assure that no bloggers from secondary or tertiary genres to politics will be on hand to cover the event. The connection, on the other hand, could be in my own mind - but I have a gut feeling it isn't.
Still, I have no plans to berate the Gizmodo blogger for doing what he did. It's high time that the outside world got savvy on how the blogosphere works, and started implementing some smart standards on what constitutes an appropriate member of the New Media for coverage of their event (and it is also important to note that if CES had instituted industry translated standards as used by the DNC, Gizmodo would likely still have fallen under the category of allowed online journalists).
How About Those Requirements, Though?
These requirements are quite stiff, and while they do indicate a certain level of technical savvy on the part of the Dems, I can say that they are a bit unfair, and tend to favor the liberal side of the political blogosphere, thus likely ensuring that positive PR will be made primary in the coverage of the event.
By that, I mean: take a scan of the top political blogs in the Technorati top list. You've got HuffPo at 4. Daily Kos at 11. ThinkProgress at 25. Crooks and Liars at 30. You have to get all the way down to 39 before you hit something resembling a conservative blog (Drudge Report) - and in the case of Drudge, the term "blog" is used loosely.
The other requirements mentioned by Sifry seem reasonable, though 120 posts may be a bit high if a blog is being written by a single individual. None the less, if the judging is done on even a moderately impartial basis in terms of the politics, I'd say that it is a fair system on the whole.
The Requirements are Certainly Stiffer than Those of the Secret Service!
I covered for RantMedia the 2004 Presidential Debates when they were held down at the University of Miami. The event was surprisingly easy to crash, especially for someone like me. My personal blog has always had a small core group of viewers, only occasionally getting widespread readership on hot stories, and my radio show at the time only covered politics as a secondary subject. I literally printed up my press credentials in my one bedroom apartment a month before the debate and had Art Lindsey, my friend and program director for RantMedia, sign them and act as the point of contact for the Secret Service, who did the authentication on the press at the event.
Political Events are Tough
And indy journalists are second class citizens. Most of these events have all the good coverage reserved for the major networks in an area that is actually officially titled "Spin Alley." You have to be an event sponsor to be allowed access to the area, and in political events, the bouncers at the gate are the same folks responsible for protecting the president, so it isn't as easy as sneaking into a Paris Hilton party on shaky credentials (something that's quite a bit easier to do, trust me).