THE US REPORT

Some bloggers—apparently in the progressive political realm—have declared war on the Associated Press. The New York Times has the full story; the paper says the AP will try to figure out some standards for use of its content. Media Bloggers Association is mentioned as an organization the AP plans to talk to. My perception is that MBA is a great source for progressive bloggers. I’ve tried to join MBA on several occasions, and a representative wrote me back to tell me I could join on the next go-round. Nothing happened after that and my emails go unanswered now.  So why wouldn't I be accepted by that organization?

I’m thinking this centrist writer isn’t exactly MBA material, which suits me pretty fine. I’m in ASJA and the Author’s Guild and there’s really nowhere else to go after those vet you anyway. Plus I'm not sure I'm can authentically call myself a blogger. I tend to write longer posts than I should and I really don't spend a lot of time on social media sites. I hang out at Blog Catalog when I do, but when I get busy with work for pay, there really aren't long stretches when I can hop around political sites and raise hell about the GOP or DNC or wail about the latest Obama rumor.  I figure I can say what I got to say right here. I rarely agree with opinions set by the status quo. At various times I have horrified both Republicans and Democrats. I figure I must be doing something right.

On the subject of content, what I don’t get is why you’d want to do an AP excerpt when you can go to the original story source and cite data from the horse’s mouth. One of the problems in the blogosphere, for all political realms, is repackaging. Someone will run a story, and then a blogger will pick it up and that little sucker just bounces in perpetuity. No one usually checks facts or strives for balance. This is true of mainstream news as well. I recall one story that was horrifically incorrect, horrifically unfair and just plain wrong. It bounced all over the world. I’ve cited that story so many times I’m not going to bring it up again. This phenomenon is sort of like the whisper game we used to play at summer camp. You whisper a statement to one person who passes it along to another. You start out with "I ran on the street with my dog today" and that morphs eventually into "Guess who ran down a dog and spilled guts all over the street today" or some such nonsense.

The way I look at it, the written word has morphed into a new entity entirely. Blogs are usually not in the spirit of traditional journalism, where there’s an editor vetting what is written and traditionally, giving nod to an attempt at fairness. But mainstream journalism itself has, in part due to cutbacks and declining revenue, abandoned its own standards. As an example, media has basically anointed the next US president. And mainstream media has basically also brought back the 60s socially.  Once MSM embraced advocacy journalism, well, let's just say things changed very drastically. This happened in the 60s and 70s with near-disastrous consequences.

Gone are the days when objectivity governed much of straight reporting. What’s ironic are the many blogs that view the AP as a conservative news organization. It’s my strong opinion the actual situation is the other way around, and the same goes for traditional media, especially newspapers and magazines in the Northeast and on the far left US coast.

Studies back me up on a general swing to the left in media by the way [see References below]. My own experience working within the industry also backs me up on that.

At any rate, it will be interesting to see how this new drama plays out. Many bloggers say they’ll boycott the AP. That’s pretty amusing since I doubt those bloggers are paying for content anyway. On the other hand, the AP does need to specify its terms for content usage on the website. I looked the site over and didn’t see specifics other than a notice to write them if you want to reprint something. This is the age of the Web and even the AP must adjust.

Truth is we live in an age of repackaging content. Wire services repackage a large percentage of content from daily newspapers. Now many bloggers repackage from wire services. But most of those bloggers are basically just trying to start a conversation with their regular readers.

I do grab ideas from mainstream news, but I always try to make what I write my own. Otherwise, why write it? Frankly, I would never rip off someone’s content intentionally.  I go to the source. And if I don’t, I just write whatever’s in my head. I figure that’s the best I can do if you’re taking the time to read my content. And it's the least I can do if I'm going to call myself a writer.

[Text by Kay B. Day; photo of US Copyright Office at the James Madison Building in Washington is from government website.]

Sound off in our new community; see link  beneath Navigation in right-hand column.