My Media Accreditation

I take very seriously what I write on this BLOGsite. I try very hard to ensure that what I say is accurate. Even when I "speculate," I do so using the best information that I have available at the time.

There have been a number of stories written about the power of the BLOG and how blogging is transforming the way we get news. A number of the Windsor Star journalists are now blogging. Many of the municipal candidates set up Blogsites as have politicians at the Senior Levels.

Is there pressure on me....you better believe it. As I have written before, I have the greatest of respect for journalists, newspaper and electronic, who have deadlines to meet and who have to tell a story not only so that it interests a reader or listener but informs the person as well. I do not pretend to compete with these professionals. All I do is the best that I can, writing about what interests me and hoping that it interests my readers too. And I have to get it out by 7 AM so that you can read something with your morning coffee to boot!

I tell you all of this again because I am going to be more demanding about my role as a Blogger and to that which I am now entitled. The article from the New York Times (see below) will provide great legitimacy for Bloggers. I am using the Times article and not that from another newspaper because it is the Times writing it for the world to read now.

Congratulations go to the man who risked jail to fight the establishment on this issue, Charles LeBlanc, whose BLOGsite is http://www.oldmaison.blogspot.com/ his lawyer, Harold Doherty [I have written both of them asking for a copy of the decision] and CBC for taking the video showing what happened and allowing it to be used by the Judge as the basis of making his decision.

As for me, I will be asking both the Feds and Province for media accreditation and City Hall as well. I can hardly wait until Janet Jackson or Pamela Anderson come to town. I have a few questions to ask them too!

• A Blogger Who’s a Court-Approved Journalist
  
  By IAN AUSTEN
  Published: November 27, 2006
  
  Many bloggers describe themselves as journalists. Last week Charles LeBlanc, a rooming house resident who lives on social assistance in Fredericton, New Brunswick, received a court decision establishing his journalistic credentials.
  
  The confirmation came last Friday when a judge dismissed charges against Mr. LeBlanc of obstructing a police officer.
  
  For the last two years, Mr. LeBlanc has been expressing his views on poverty and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder through a blog (oldmaison.blogspot.com). The idea, he said, came from benefactors who also provided him a small digital camera and a computer.
  
  He declined to name the people, however, partly because at least one of them is employed by his favorite target: the many companies in New Brunswick controlled by the Irving family, which owns, according to a report on media ownership released by Canada’s Senate earlier this year, all the English-language daily newspapers in New Brunswick.
  
  In June, Mr. LeBlanc went to Saint John, New Brunswick, to report on a protest against a meeting of chamber of commerce and board of trade members from Atlantic Canada and New England. Protestors stormed the meeting. Mr. LeBlanc was among those arrested.
  
  Officers from the Saint John police testified they are regular readers of Mr. LeBlanc’s blog as part of their effort to gather intelligence on protests. William J. McCarroll, the provincial court judge who heard Mr. LeBlanc’s case, wrote in his decision that “Mr. LeBlanc is a ‘blogger.’ I’m sure that many, if not the majority of Saint Johners, are not familiar with this word.”
  
  After reviewing videotape from a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation crew at the scene, sometimes in slow motion, the judge found that it contradicted testimony of the arresting officer, Sergeant John Parks.
  
  “Members of the so called mainstream media were taking photographs and filming in the same area without interference from the police,” the judge wrote in a 20-page decision. “I believe it’s fair to say that the defendant was doing nothing wrong at the time he was approached by Sergeant Parks and placed under arrest. He was simply plying his trade, gathering photographs and information for his blog alongside other reporters.”
  
  The judge also said that the police had no right to delete about 200 photos stored on Mr. LeBlanc’s camera.
  
  Mr. LeBlanc said he had considered improving his skills by studying journalism at a local university. That is, until its journalism department accepted a donation of 1 million Canadian dollars from the Irvings. “Do you think I could study in a classroom listening to an Irving employee?” he asked.