By RegoPark
Contributing Writer

Last month’s Editor and Publisher discussed the recent granting of White House press conference passes to bloggers. As I argued last June, the line between Constitutional right and privilege is a blurry one, but anyone willing to observe and respect official press protocol should be granted the same access to the official daily press briefings…and if granting access to the physical White House is such a security issue, then maybe it’s high time official press communication should be relocated.

Until this year’s milestone credentialing of FishBowlDC blogger Garrett Graff, credentials were restricted to representatives of for-profit news organizations. Others, like Matt Drudge, have been granted daily passes — Matt via an invitation from ABC’s Mark Halperin. Somehow the system didn’t cover all the security bases. No one, let alone someone with questionable credentials and a checkered past like Jeff Gannon, was supposed to receive repeat “daily” passes over a period of years.

But now the Powers That Be have relented and the expected onslaught of amateurs hasn’t quite materialized. Why haven’t bloggers and other “citizen journalists” taken the chance to go beyond kvetching about the government and proactively take on the Press Secretary?

Strupp quoted one insider as speculating that the lack of interest may stem from the fact that the press briefings are not all that interesting, and can be seen on C-SPAN, with transcripts on the Web: “Maybe bloggers have better things to do, after the novelty has worn off.” Even Graff, the Neil Armstrong of the White House Press Bloggers, agrees that “briefings just aren’t that interesting on a day-to-day basis, and there is not a lot of reason for bloggers to go.”

Another insider states that many bloggers go online for fun and need to work at real jobs during the day. “People are busy,” he says. Strupp regrets this, as nonofficial journalists “have particular areas of obsession or expertise that can lead to unusual, and often good, questions.”

I think Strupp is correct in that there isn’t compelling enough reason for bloggers to appear every day. He points out that White House briefings are televised on C-SPAN and transcripts are available — but to that I’d argue that most people who go through the trouble of getting White House cred do it not because they want to get past the velvet rope and wow their friends, but because they actually have questions for the President’s representative. Others could argue that bloggers don’t go because they’re not really as serious as they pretend to be. But I think the media is all missing out on a few major factors:

Most independent news gatherers and bloggers cannot afford to support themselves solely with their websites or arrange their lives around White House briefings.
Most independent news gatherers and bloggers have day jobs.
Most independent news gatherers and bloggers do not live in the Washington, DC area.
Most independent news gatherers and bloggers lack the time and manpower to attend briefings and maintain their websites.
Most (ditto ditto ditto) need to hear what the Press Secretary has to say before formulating and asking intelligent questions. They don’t have bosses and deadlines forcing them to head to the White House with an agenda already intact.

What we really need — and what would generate “citizen journalism” participation in official press meetings — would be to schedule them online. In addition to the press “face time” at the literal White House, Scott McClellan could communicate with bloggers via podcast or online chat. This would eliminate the security risks of physical press conferences. The only credentialing necessary would be to register with the White House website. Conduct and protocol guidelines could be clearly established for less-than-seasoned journalists, and participation in the online conference would be a privilege that could be revoked.

Bloggers and other unofficial journalists bring their own set of pros and cons to the game. They can be disruptive, superficial, noncommital, and ridiculously subjective. They can also be more thoughtful and less biased, pressured, jaded, hardened, or burnt-out than their professional counterparts.

Let’s face it. Journalism is an extremely competitive, low-paying profession for most people in the industry. The hours stink, security is not that great. It can be a thankless, dangerous, even less-than-fulfilling line of work for many talented would-be newsmen and women. Chances are that if you have potential as a journalist, you have potential for something else that offers more security and a saner lifestyle. The country is full of people who have lots of salient, thought-provoking questions for the President. Questions that could well change the direction of most daily press conferences. In any case, the media is not and should not be restricted to those who make journalism their full-time career. Let’s hear from the others.

As Matt said years ago, freedom of the press belongs to anyone who owns one. Regardless of how many citizen journalists have the time or leisure to jump at this new opportunity set before us, this is a milestone to celebrate…and not take lightly.