...As MSM scales back convention coverage.

With the reports that media outlets such as CBS News are seriously contemplating reducing their coverage of the historic 2008 Democratic National Convention  [Source:  Politico.com, Networks may limit convention coverage", July 9, 2008], more Americans will be turning towards the more than one hundred bloggers credentialed by the Democratic National Convention Committee (DNCC) for their daily convention updates.

However, the blog, DemConWatch, discovered today that over half of the bloggers attending the Democratic National Convention may not be getting the unprecedented access they were expecting.

• General Bloggers who received credentials will get "Hall" credentials rather than the more restrictive "Arena" credentials. This allows them to access a general press area, the blogger lounge, the concourses and a portion of the the upper seating area;


• A first-come-first-serve section of seats will be reserved within the Hall for bloggers;


• The previously mentioned general press area is in the Denver Nuggets practice court; and


• The blogger lounge is in the Nuggets work-out room.

Source:  DemConWatch.com, "Media Walk-Through...Take 2", July 9, 2008

Throughout the four days of the convention, bloggers credentialed as part of the General Blogger Pool (including Georgia Politics Unfiltered, the blog of this diary's author) may end up camping out on the steps of the Pepsi Center in hopes of gaining access to the limited "general blogger" seats on the convention floor.  This has prominent bloggers such as Markos Moulitsas, founder of DailyKos, renewing their criticisms of a blogger credentialing process that many consider to be flawed.

It's clear that my original complaints were correct -- that the best state-level bloggers, cut out by pernicious party hacks and/or the incompetence of convention organizers -- will not have easy access to their delegations on the floor of the convention. And all the tone-deaf responses by Aaron Myers have now proven inoperative.

This was fixable. It's unconscionable that it wasn't.

Source:  Daily Kos.com, "Shocker, I was right about DNCC blogger passes", July 9, 2008

The DNCC credentialed 124 bloggers for the Democratic National Convention including just over fifty state bloggers who will be seated with their respective state delegations on the convention floor.  The remainder of the credentialed blogs will compete for the limited number floor passes allocated to the general blogger pool.