I guess you should be glad they weren’t giving bloggers Pink Triangles. (Go wikipedia, kids.)

Or handing out badges with “Fanzine” on them.

(Although some bloggers should, for truth-in-labeling, have badges with “Suckup” on them.)

I agree with Ozone; a real journalist has a boss and can be fired or held accountable for their writings, whereas a blogger’s posts are merely taken as opinions, and held free from libel or other liability. You should accept that blogger badge with pride, not just cry out for lack of “press access”. Stand up for your blogger brothers!

I asked the question a couple of months ago when I registered and was told there would not be any limitations with the Blogger category and if I wanted I could switch to Press. I printed out this email in case I want to switch, but I think I would rather hang with the bloggers in the special blogger lounges. I have all the invites and confirmations to the press events I want so I don’t see a problem being a Blogger and will probably keep this designation for this show and see how it goes.

I can also understand why they might have a separate bloggers category. After all, you do expect that actual press members carry the legitimacy and credentials of the media organization they represent. Blogs are, after all, just opinions. That being said… I find the official media outlets to often be too slow in disseminating the news, and their assessments to be off-the-mark many times. Bloggers are who I get the critical “this is my take on how a device REALLY works” writeups from!

The whole issue makes me want to say “to heck with the consumer electronics industry. Clearly since I get my info from blogs, that industry does not want me. For what I spend out of disretionary money on consumer electronics, if I cut that spending to zero in revolt, I can take the entire family on a VERY nice cruise each year……And my wife will be happier!

I can understand why they might want a Bloggers category, the problem is how arbitrarily they’ve assigned them as near as I can tell. Those with just a blog should probably be labeled as such as you point out but those who have been labeled as Press for years should probably not be changed.

What are typically the requirements to get your credentials approved? I mean, I have a blog, and I talk about gadgets, should I be given a press pass? Should I be given a blogger pass? Would I just be laughed at?

More to the point, I think the proliferation of amteur blogs has led to a rethinking of how shows like this hand out credentials, and though they could have just said no to all the people that just started a page on blogger and link to every post that the major sites make, they made a classification for them that still gives them the “we’re special!” feel without getting them confused with the people they really want to spend time talking to.

You wont get access to the bloggers lounge..

http://gizmodo.com/341118/bloggers-get-special-privileges-their-own-exclusive-lounge-at-ces