• by July 6, 2004

The bloggers are coming--to the political conventions that is.

There was some amount of controversy over whether to offer bloggers press credentials to cover the Democratic and Republican National Conventions. Are bloggers journalists? Are they legitimate? Should they receive the same privileges?

Now comes word that the Democrats are poised to offer credentials to a select group of bloggers prior to the Democratic National Convention in Boston which starts July 26. More than 60 bloggers have applied for credentials to attend the DNC. The Republicans are also planning to give bloggers credentials. So the same privileges extended to print, radio, online, and broadcast journalists will be extended to bloggers. Hmmm. That means they'll be holed up in the same press room with bad coffee and stale snacks and swarm the same sweaty parties.

DailyKos.com, GOPUSA.com, Instapundit.com, Wonkette.com, TalkingPointsMemo.com, RealClearPolitics.com, these are just a few of the best known "political" blogs out there in the blogosphere. I expect that they'll be at the conventions or covering the action in one form or another.

Unrelated to the conventions, I found a really interesting blog recently called Baghdad Burning--positioned as a "girl blog" from Iraq: "Let's talk war, politics and occupation," the slogan reads. It's an incisive and detailed account of living in Baghdad talking about everything from the stifling heat and civilian casualties, to gossip about government officials and the daily lives of ordinary people trying to navigate the situation. It's a good read for a glimpse into what life is like in Baghdad.