Restricting news conferences to working journalists?

He wasn't taking questions?
Fuck him. He deserves to get heckled and definitely deserves no respect after lying about what he did.

 

To get credentials to the Ryder Cup, your newspaper has to have a circulation of 50,000. (Not sure what it is for TV or radio). I don't see why something like that couldn't apply to important government press conferences. Besides the heckling aspect, there is generally limited space at these kind of things (especially for photographers or camera men) and some guy with a blog that has 12 followers shouldn't get a spot over someone from the Washington Post.

 

Here is the URL for a New York Times blog item on the heckling, http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/16/even-a-media-circus-needs-a-clown/?hp

Only one heckle could be printed on The Times website.

I know it takes more of your time, but watching the video is the best way to learn the specifics of the heckling.

 

What defines a journalist? Can a Patch journalist come or some local blogger who works for free, but is just as good as newspaper reporter?

One of my professors told a funny story about Weiner. He was in a meeting with him in Brooklyn when Weiner took a call on his government-issued cell phone. Weiner told the caller he would ask him for money, so he'd have to do it on a personal or campaign phone. Interesting story and my professor is disheartened by Weiner's lack of morality.

 

Stern guys have gotten into many press conferences by faking credentials.

Also, Benjy was beaten in the leg with a bike chain after the presser. He has severe ligament damage that will take months to heal. I suppose many of you think he deserved it though.

 

Bloggers don't deal with the same requirements as a journalist, be they a Patch journalist or any other news organization.

 

A point on credentialing.

As my J school professor said, the beauty and the tragedy of journalism is that you don't need to be licensed -- anyone can do it. You can take a wino and put him with a NY Times credential and as long as he passes a security background put him in the White House beat.

I am not for any type of professional licensing. First off, the government can't regulate journalists because of constitutional issues and a private industry wide credentialing for public events in public locations would also probably be destroyed in court on anti-trust grounds (who decides who is a legit journalist?). .

This was a security problem, and of course, the Stern people acted unprofessionally. It was up to security to remove the journalist for disrupting the Weiner. That's the answer.

 

If only that guy hadn't yelled so the transcribers whose questions weren't going to be answered could have transcribed correctly!

 

What are the requirements for a journalist? You can lift and fabricate quotes and still have a job if you're famous enough.

 

I don't understand what the big deal with having to get credentials is. Why not run it through your state's press association and at an event like this, limit it to press association-certified journalists only?

I get the fear about government censoring and all but if the press association has no ties to the government and (I'm guessing) most of us are already part of these associations, why not empower them a little?

Side note- I've been listening to Stern this week and had a feeling Bronk would do this again. While I think his questions today were hilarious, if I were a working member of the media trying to do my job there, I would be extremely pissed about some asshat ruining my chance (even if it was slim) of getting to ask a question.

 

If a press association is handing out credentials to a politician's press conference, I would call that a tie to government.

As Mizzou wrote, how often are press conferences disrupted like this?

 

?

The press association would be handing out credentials to journalists on their own, independent of the event itself. It's like applying to get a drivers license. You show you're qualified, you attain the license. In this instance, you go to the press association, showing you work as a journalist (And, yes, this can include bloggers and Patch folks) and you get licensed through them.

Don't see the issue here.