The Other McCain

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Sending Bloggers to CPAC

Posted on | February 26, 2013 | 10 Comments

The National Bloggers Club is raising money to send bloggers to CPAC. From the press release:

With the largest annual gathering, the Conservative Political Action Conference, less than three weeks away, the National Bloggers Club launched a new scholarship fund to send at least four citizen-journalists to the annual conference at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland.
Money for the scholarships will be raised through crowd sourced donations, BlogBash.org, and will cover travel and hotel costs. Grant recipients have been selected from applicants from throughout the country.
“The National Bloggers Club is honored to launch this initiative to help some of our own attend CPAC -and BlogBash this year,” said Bruce Carroll, NBC board member and blogger at www.GayPatriot.com. “Our goal through this effort is to raise $4,500 to make sure that our scholarship recipients have the resources they need to accurately and efficiently report from CPAC. As bloggers, we have a duty to help each other out and this is part of that continuing mission.”
Many bloggers hold full-time jobs and support families, so it can be a financial challenge to attend the largest annual gathering of conservatives in the country. The National Bloggers Club established this fund knowing the both the conference and the political blogging world benefit from the presence of additional citizen-journalists.
The National Bloggers Club is working closely with the organizers of CPAC, the American Conservative Union, to make sure these grantees receive blogger credentials to the event. Recipients of the grant will also assist the Club in providing tools, pictures, and other resources to the hundreds of its members planning to attend.

Click here to contribute.

Comments

10 Responses to “Sending Bloggers to CPAC”

  1. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    February 26th, 2013 @ 9:58 am

    Who are they sending? I nominate Bill Hoge and Bob Belvedere (I assume you and DaTechGuy are going).

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  5. htowt
    February 26th, 2013 @ 1:16 pm

    It’s a little sad when the press release for this post doesn’t even get the domain right for Bruce Carroll’s blog. Dan Blatt might have a comment…

  6. Bob Belvedere
    February 26th, 2013 @ 2:32 pm

    Thank you, Evi, but I could never attend an event that Grover ‘The Dhimmi’ Norquist is associated with.

  7. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    February 26th, 2013 @ 5:06 pm

    You should go precisely to confront Grover Norquist about that. Speak truth to power and all that stuff.

  8. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    February 26th, 2013 @ 5:06 pm

    Zilla should go too.

  9. devitor
    February 26th, 2013 @ 7:30 pm

    I’ve been blogging now for five years. Like everyone else, I’m trying to make ends meet. I’ve always paid my way to events at which I was providing on-site coverage on my blog site. I know a lot of people who are not going to CPAC, because they simply can’t afford it. Who’s picking winners? Who’s picking losers? What is the criteria to determine who is worthy of an all-expense paid trip and who is not? Most importantly, how is this fair to those who are paying their way?

    How are the recipients of these trips beholden to those providing them? What other special privileges are being provided to these bloggers? I’m thinking specifically about VIP passes with certain prominent speakers whoever they may be. What about special dinners? Should we pay these meals too?

    A professional reporter is paid to be at an event by his or her employer, because that’s the job. A blogger pays to travel to an event. A reporter does this work by vocation. A blogger generally does it by avocation. A blogger blogs because he or she believes in a political figure or some side of a political issue or a number of issues.

    Private individuals can pay for who they want, but I think it’s a bad idea and it’s fundamentally unfair to those who are sacrificing and paying their own freight. CPAC already gives all media – including bloggers – free admission to the event – which is fine. Everyone benefits across the board. But, I don’t see the fairness in cherry-picking bloggers to receive free travel.

  10. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    February 26th, 2013 @ 10:18 pm

    Excellent points. But if they want to raise a few bucks to help somegood but broke bloggers out, I will not get heartburn over it. I posted the link.