BREAKING NEWS: DNCC Director of PRess Relations to Address Convention Blogger Controversy

UPDATE: About 30 seconds after I put up this post, I received this message from the DNCC:

Congratulations. The Democratic Convention staff has completed its review of blog credential applications and I’m writing to let you know that your blog will be credentialed at the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver.

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Look MAMA! Okay now back to the original post.

Original Post
For the past two weeks there has been tremendous controversy surrounding the state blogger corp of the Democratic National Convention. The DNCC is issuing an unprecedented amount of blogging credentials to cover the convention in August in Denver Colorado. There were two pools that were available. The state blogger pool is the pool of bloggers who cover individual state politics and they will be seated with the delegation from each state/ territory. They will have a seat on the floor of the convention. The other pool of blogging credentials is the general pool. That pool is supposed to be comprised of blogs covering national politics or blogs, like this one, addressing unique or niche audiences. I applied for the general pool along with most African American bloggers who applied. The general pool has not been announce as of this post, but I suspect it will come out tomorrow

Well about two weeks ago, the list of the state blogging corp was released and there do not appear to be any Black run blogs on the list or for that matter Hispanic, Asian or Native American. As you can imagine that touched off some controversy about inclusion and diversity. While others have been quite outspoken on the issue publicly. I always maintained that we should obtain additional information before wilding out. My position is that if I get a credential I get one, if not, that is fine, I just wanted some African American political bloggers to have access to the floor if they wanted. IT was the principal of the matter.

Some people did not take my advice and all you-know-what broke loose with folks talking about Black bloggers being put at the back of the bus, comparing the state blogger pool selection to "Jim Crow," and apartheid. The problem with that is Black folks hold leadership positions all up under and through the Democratic National Convention planning Committee. The CEO of the entire 60 Million dollar operation is a Black woman. Plus, there are excellent arguments about diversity, inclusion, access, media monopolies, and economics that could be made to lobby for the inclusion of more bloggers of color without opening you up to the criticism that you were whining. I always felt this could be solved with a dialog. (See how much I've grown Mama!) Not because I am "chicken" or an Uncle Tomasina, House Negress as I have been called in the past two weeks for my election not to pull out a sledge hammer to deal with every issue or obstacle I encounter, but because this was a glaring oversight that could be corrected. So I decided to elect not to run around screaming like a chicken with my head cut off and spent my time reaching out to people who could give me more information and who might be in a position to do something about this.

So tonight on the Black Women's Roundtable at 8:30PM CST we will be speaking to the Director of Press Relations for the Democratic National Convention Committee. I don't believe he has spoken publicly about this issue prior to tonight. He is making himself available for questions about what happened and possible solutions to fix this.

So don't rely on secondhand information, get your information from the source tonight at 8:30Pm CST on the Black Women's Roundtable.

Background:
My call from the DNCC on blogger credentials for the Denver convention - Pam's House Blend

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