A lot of noise is being made about the Media Bloggers Association and their role in the AP cease and desist story. Most of it is uninformed. I’ve been a member since the thing began. It’s not a sham. It’s got members from the left and right. Robert Cox is a conservative, I don’t agree with him on anything, but he’s a stand up guy who has been a great advocate for collectively getting blogs access to things. In many cases its one thing if a site like Daily Kos asks for a press pass - they will get it, but it’s another thing when sites like mine or smaller are involved. That’s one of the things MBA has helped out with, and because of that I was able to cover one of the debates as well as a recent address by John McCain. MBA has also legally assisted blogs when they’ve come under fire, and as Rogers Cadenhead - the target of AP’s action - points out, they helped him too.
The funny thing is every time these issues pop up, people bitch about MBA being involved - and you would think, okay, if they don’t like Bob they would form their own group. And it doesn’t happen. So then some stupid company or group goes after blogs, they call on MBA for help, and the bitchfest starts again.
Thanks for saying this, Oliver. Speaking from the eye of this particular blogstorm, I’ve been frustrated by how much of an ass-kicking Robert Cox and the Media Bloggers Association has been taking. I wrote another post on my blog making clear exactly how they got involved:
http://www.cadenhead.org/workbench/news/3370
Oliver,
This unjustified ass-kicking Cox and the MBA has been taking. Damn it, it’s what I see the liberal blogosphere doing time after time. Shoddy research, going off half-cocked, overkill, bludgeoning, passing the cudgel from one blog to another.
I hate that this shit happens, and happens so often, and happens by people who call themselves liberal, and who are the first to decry the illiberalness and the evilness of people who disagree with them.
I think the point may be that some bloggers don’t want a group to step in and represent them? That would explain why they complain when one does, but never set about setting up one of their own.
I guess I’m curious why the MBA thinks they should talk to the AP at all. The AP has no legal leg to stand on. Negotating with a few bloggers who call themselves an association means nothing.
Copyright laws and fair use are clear.
The problem isn’t with the MBA guys…the point is that the MBA has been picked to represent all bloggers everywhere in the recent AP fiasco.
That’s like picking Microsoft to represent all software companies or Google to represent all search engines. Kinda silly when you think about it.
Because Rogers asked them to. This is not that complicated.
The MBA is representing one person. They’ve never claimed to be representing more than one person or their members. Why can’t anyone read anymore?
We can read. We can see how the MBA wanting to meet with the AP let the AP float an air of legitimacy. “See, we’re meeting with bloggers to work this out.”
It’s like Dems going on Fox news, Oliver. Don’t give the enemy a chance to look legitimate.