Credentialed Blogging
American Papist offers “news coverage” – quotes aren’t a reflection on the dear American Papist, but rather ironical given the topic and my sourcing of a blogger – of the Archdiocese of Washington’s press office refusal to answer inquiries from Cathlic News Agency(CNA) by claiming that they aren’t a real journalistic outfit. I have half a mind to make an inquiry myself, perhaps to verify this story, but that would require me to do work on this story.
I think you are going to be seeing more of this. Mark Cuban, ecclectic owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, banned locker room access for bloggers. Alas, the NBA did over rule him. There is of course the time and resource commitment to allowing access for every outfit under the sun. There is of course the simple truth that bloggers aren’t journalists. Then there is the other small matter of asking a large organization to recognize your tin hatted dictatorship while disparaging that organization and not even going to the trouble of correcting incorrect items when they are brought to your attention. Vox Nova has recognized several news outlets ourselves for failing to live up to journalistic standards.
In the end, there are more than a couple news sources commonly cited in the Catholic blogosphere that I will assume are false until I verify the information elsewhere. Bloggers who routinely cite them, even after having been burned several times, see me reading their blogs less frequently. I wouldn’t come down on the side of demanding a mandatum from blogs per se. I think blogs generally stand on the standards they maintain, and regrettably most are gossip tabloids and should be treated accordingly.
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The CNA is a ministry associated with the Christian Life Movement, and is housed at St. Elizabeth of Hungary Church in Denver. The various groups associated with the Christian Life Movement (they include priests, brother and consecrated women) were invited to the Archdiocese of Denver several years ago by Abp. Chaput. They have produced great fruit for the Archdiocese. In addition to their work in media, they run programs for young people, have an outreach on the Auraria campus, and they also administer Camp St. Malo, a retreat center near Allenspark, CO, which is one of the most beautiful places on Earth.
CNA s a legitimate organization, associated with the church. the members and associates of the Christian Life Movement whom I have know have always been very cooperative with the local ordinary, and he has been very supportive of their mission.
I’m assuming the spokewoman of Washington is being honest in her assessment. CNA appears to be taking her allegations seriously and addressing them. I think good Catholic media is much to be desired. CNA hadn’t been one of my black-listed organizations, but I haven’t seen much linking to them in the past. It sounds like they are doing quite a bit of good in the Denver area at least.
That’s odd. According to Alexa, CatholicNewsAgency.com gets more traffic than the USCCB’s outfit, CatholicNews.com.