National Journal's "Beltway Blogroll" looks at the sometimes contentious relationship between political candidates and bloggers.
The presidential campaign of Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., banned an Ohio blogger from covering an event he had traveled all the way to New Hampshire to see.
The restrained but on-the-mark reaction at Daily Kos: "It's stupid to keep people out of events because they have a blog. In today's world, everyone has a blog, or writes at blogs, or has a MySpace or Facebook page, or participates in online forums like bulletin boards. ... As for bloggers, don't say that you are bloggers. I'm not sure what benefits you get from announcing it to the world."
The encounter has revived the question of whether bloggers should be treated as citizens or journalists, or as citizen journalists, when attending campaign events. It's an especially relevant question now in light of the OffTheBus citizen reporting planned for the presidential campaign -- an effort that already has prompted criticisms about fairness.
On the Republican side of the blogosphere, meanwhile, Fred Thompson may be angling for the unofficial honor of "blogger-in-chief" if he decides to jump into the 2008 presidential race: "Thompson has been the most active campaign blogger by far, and those who know him say he writes nearly everything himself -- not always the case in modern politics."
And on both sides of the blogosphere, the "Internet guys" who work for campaigns don't want to be called Internet guys anymore.
There's a whole lot more good stuff and links in the Beltway Blogroll post - click here.
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