Correction, and apology to Robert Cox

For Liberal Bloggers, Libby Trial Is Fun and Fodder

It is the first federal case for which independent bloggers have been given official credentials along with reporters from the traditional news media, said Robert A. Cox, president of the Media Bloggers Association. Mr. Cox negotiated access for the bloggers.

This is the second time Cox has taken credit for arranging for press credentials for the FireDogLake bloggers, and for the second time FireDogLake has denied it:

One correction, though: the MBA did NOT negotiate our media passes. We have been working on getting passes for this trial from the moment Libby was indicted. Jane and I made calls to the courthouse, e-mailed, wrote letters, and worked on getting credential from very early on. To emphasize our commitment to doing serious coverage, we enlisted the help of Arianna, whose Huffington Post name was more recognizable than FDL to folks not familiar with how blogs had been covering this investigation. But the gaining of our three media passes? That was OUR work.

Why persist in taking credit for getting bloggers credentials when you didn’t do it? It doesn’t make you or your organization look good.

Correction: February 16, 2007

A front-page article yesterday about bloggers covering the perjury trial of
I. Lewis Libby Jr. referred imprecisely to the role of Robert A. Cox, president of the Media Bloggers Association, in securing credentials. Mr. Cox negotiated access for his association, which was the first blogger group to be granted credentials to cover the trial. He did not negotiate on behalf of firedoglake.com and other blogs that received their credentials later.