Bloggers press for power: whether bloggers qualify for press credentials is getting a lot of attention in state capitols.

• Author: Moore, Nicole Casal

A "blog swarm" began shortly after Rob Weber told a blogger why he couldn't have a press pass to cover the Kentucky Legislature.

Weber, who is director of public information at the Kentucky Legislative Research Commission, told Mark Nickolas of BluegrassReport.org that he was welcome to watch from the gallery. But he couldn't have a seat with the journalists.

This is how Nickolas headlined his post about their exchange: "A Brave New World Hits the Old World Head-On."

And this is how Weber reacted: "I'm 35 years old," he thought. "I'm the Old World?"

It got worse. A few days later, Club for Growth's blog called for a swarm. "It's time for blogging barbarians to jump the moat and tear down the gate," the blog read. Seven or eight more blogs started writing about the issue, Weber says.

This is "likely an early skirmish in what will be a lengthy nationwide struggle," read Yapscott's Copy Desk.

Even National Journal's Beltway Blogroll mentioned the situation.

Weber was more famous than he wanted to be, but he and the Kentucky Legislative Research Commission stuck by their decision at the time. But the media landscape is evolving, he says, and the precise geography of blogger country is still unknown. The question of whether bloggers qualify for press credentials is one his state will undoubtedly revisit, and others are taking up.

Bloggers aren't taking "no" for an answer. BluegrassReport.org's Mark Nickolas found a loophole in the Kentucky policy and qualified for credentials. He started writing a column for a local paper. Bloggers in at least Texas and Tennessee plan to apply for press passes to cover the 2007 session.

"This is an issue that's going to keep coming up," Weber says. "Blogs are gaining power. They're influencing the way stories are covered and they're revolutionizing the information distribution system.... There is a metamorphosis going on and nothing is the same as it was yesterday."

INTO THE BLOGOSPHERE

The web log was born around a decade ago. Its earliest genre, which is still its most popular, was the personal diary. Today, blog search engine Technorati.com tracks 57 million blogs, 11 percent of which discuss politics, according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project.

Although just 8 percent of American Internet users keep blogs, 39 percent of Americans read them, Pew found in a summer 2006 survey. The Blogosphere is part of the larger online media universe--a place 19 percent of Americans went for election news on a typical day in August 2006, according to another Pew study.

It's hard to count exactly how many bloggers write about legislatures, but NCSL's blog, The Thicket at State Legislatures, links to around 150 others with some connection to a statehouse. Many are part of the grassroots or citizen journalism movement like BluegrassReport.org.

State Legislatures doesn't know of any bloggers not affiliated with a print or broadcast news organizations who have credentials to cover a legislature. A majority of legislative communicators who responded to a quick survey said they would not be inclined to give a blogger the same credential status as a journalist. That's a sentiment reporters echo. But media experts say a blanket denial policy is not a good idea.

Of the 99 state legislative chambers (Nebraska is unicameral.), 81 have a process to...