The second meeting of the PEI Press Gallery took place this evening at the Coles Building and after about an hour’s worth of debate between Mr. Pate and the Press Chair Wayne Thibodeau and a few comment by others a motion was put to the floor to have Pate removed from the membership that pasted... it appeared quite obvious that Mr. Pate had little support from the membership and those who spoke believed he went over the line with his past remarks about various media people... in his defence Mr. Pate tried to pass it all off as "satire" but there was no one laughing... the whole issue of how Mr. Pate got there in the first place was questioned and it appears that his original "entry" was done by no other than the Speaker who is probably now regretting her actions... it was my request back at a standing committee hearing to be considered as media that started this whole debate as I felt I had the same “blogging” credentials as Mr. Pate... but the reality is I'm no journalist but I am a strong believer that there are those in the social media that should be considered as such and I expressed this at the meeting... I was pleased that the Press Gallery invited me to voice my opinions on this "social media" issue and I asked if I may present "my case" to a future meeting as to why this form of media should be considered in the future... I suggested that a "criteria" for membership should be developed to qualify for membership into the Press Gallery (which probably should include a code of conduct) and that I would be willing to offer some suggestions to help develop such... everything takes time and my feelings are that the current Press Gallery will evolve into what it should be and someday bloggers like myself and Mr. Pate should be able to put forward an application and have it heard on its merits and reasonable heads will prevail... my advice to Mr. Pate for what it's worth is that the Legislature is a serious business and approaching it in a “satirical” way is not going to get him or anyone else anywhere... but good writing on issues of the day, which I believe he is very capable of, will eventually get him back...
Steven Pate not welcome in P.E.I. legislature press gallery
The Guardian
October 19, 2009
Social blogger and satirist Steven Pate is not welcome in the press gallery of the P.E.I. Legislature. The newly created press gallery held a special meeting tonight to vote on recommending to the speaker of the Legislature that Pate be removed from the list of accredited media. The vote was 11-2 in favour of ousting Pate. Pate spoke in his own defence, saying he is a journalist who likes satire and that traditional media are "afraid of him" and the new media he represents. More later... http://www.theguardian.pe.ca
Monday, October 19, 2009
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4 comments:
Dear Mr. Pate,
Just because you haven't slandered anyone in the past couple of months does not mean the public and media in general will forget how low, how sexist, and how ignorant your comments have been in past.
Mr. Pate, you opinion on a subject is fair game. Your slander is not.
You have been trying to be a reporter, but I guarantee you will slip back into the mud slinger. Copy and pasting moon landings and story;s you disagree with from the Guardian do not count as journalism.
There is a place for new media, but you do not count.
I know you don't understand, and it is all about free speech and common licenses .... blah blah blah. You feel you are able to call anyone down to the lowest and that is your right. Guess what, you have been judged by a panel of your peers. Take notice.
I hope some day you will understand.
Mr. Banks, your comments are bang on.
It is a slippery slope that the PEI media and The Government started down tonight.
In a few years we may look back and say how the heck could we have been so stupid to allow these people to do what they done to the public tonight.
I can only hope that we don't all live to regret the decision made tonight.
Although what is most funny when people like Thiebedeau and Casey do things like this they seem to always live to regret it.
Will be interesting to see how they end up regretting it. May look VERY good on both of them.
I know for one reader of the Guardian my respect for Wayne Thiebedeau's Journalistic ability has certainly been damaged by this whole silly fiasco.
In the end I think Pate has won!
Bloggers aren't media any more than Wikipedia is a knowledge base.
Bloggers aren't media, though it is too bad they weren’t. If they could put personal bias aside, they could have more freedom than traditional media to ask the big questions of things such as PNP. As it is, what passes for news these days is often little more than public interest stories—and that is from those trained in the field. Island media seems to try not ‘to offend’ anyone. But letting just anyone who happens to post their stream-of-consciousness on the Internet access to people and places as if they were accredited media merely waters down what is currently ineffectual enough. Often the bloggers set out to offend and thus can’t be taken seriously. Something in between would be nice.
What we need is the old CBC radio, the one that used to ask the difficult questions, angering politicians (including Prime Ministers!, if you remember Gzowski) and others as they did so. All CBC is now is another AM channel, dispensing fridge magnets and River Dance tickets.
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