On press passes and bloggers.

I was talking to some professional journalists at the CES PodTech BlogHaus, and they expressed some reservations about the fact that some bloggers were given press passes this year.  then yesterday Jeremiah Owyang sparked an interesting disussion about traditional media and bloggers at CES, and today Dave Winer touches on the cozy relationship between MSM media and big corporate PR.  However, as proud as he is of his non-relationship with big PR, Dave seemed pleased to get his CES press pass.....

For me, I'm torn on this issue.  Selfishly, I'd like the best of both worlds, which would be 2 passes.  At CES this week,  I had a regular exhibits-only pass, which worked fine for me.  But I would have liked a press pass to get me into ShowStoppers and front-of-the-ridiculously-long-line for the CES keynotes.  But for the show floor, I want to be a non-press nobody, so I can get the same experience that an average attendee gets, good or bad. 

Ironically, it's this nobody status that has made bloggers' unvarnished coverage interesting.  If this changes, and bloggers are recognized for their influence and fawned over like the professional press, I suspect that thieir coverage will be much less interesting....

Comments

[Ryan]

Brian,

You might find my take on some of the professional bloggers activities at CES this year... interesting... and please don't take it to heart if it doesn't sound like you.

http://whatsupdell.blogspot.com/2007/01/will-professional-bloggers-please-chill.html

Regards,

Ryan

[Jeremiah Ouwyang]

Ryan left the same comment on my blog too. and others. Hi Ryan!

Brian, you've got the link to me accidentally switched with a link to Pirillo.

thanks

jko

[Brian Benz]

Ryan's comment seemed cut-and-pasted, so I ignored it....

Sorry about the link! Fixed.

[Ryan]

Hi Jeremiah, and Brian.

No, my comment was *not* cut & pasted.

You'll note that when I leave comments, it's because I've read the post, and am responding to it on the spot. Sometimes, it's more effective to type out the url to a post I've already created, than duplicate my effort in the comments section. Other times, I do respond in the comments of the blog in question. Jeremiah can attest to this.

I guess these type of responses are what I get for pointing out problems in the professional blogging community, and appropriately posting a link to my *long post* instead of typing the whole thing up in the comments section of the various blogs I check out.

and please excuse me if I'm unprofessionally not spell checking.

Regards,

-Ryan