Media Bloggers Association

The Media Bloggers Association (MBA) is a United States membership-based, non-partisan voluntary association describing its activity as "supporting the development of 'blogging' or 'citizen journalism' as a distinct form of media".^[1]

In January 2007, an MBA member received press credentials identical to those of broadcast and print journalists at a federal court, to cover the trial of Lewis Libby, alongside bloggers from more established sites including Firedoglake, the Huffington Post, and Daily Kos.^[2] The MBA described this as a significant step forward in its efforts on behalf of its members,^[3] despite the fact that the major blogs covering the trial did not rely on the MBA for their credentials.^[4]

In June 2008, MBA became involved in a copyright dispute involving Associated Press demand of strict terms for bloggers quoting from their news at the request of Rogers Cadenhead whose Drudge Retort was affected.^[5]

Criticism

Many of the MBA's members are unknown bloggers, but some are prominent bloggers such as Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit,^[6] Oliver Willis,^[7] Liza Sabater of Culture Kitchen,^[8] Jeff Jarvis of BuzzMachine. Still, some bloggers have claimed that the MBA has made sweeping claims to represent bloggers.^[9][10][11] These critics have claimed that the MBA did not include any major bloggers as members nor represent a significant proportion of the blogging community. Michael Arrington of TechCrunch also claimed, without support, that a business relationship existed between the Associated Press and the MBA.^[12]

BoingBoing, one of the blogs critical of the MBA, issued a corrective stating that it was the Associated Press and the New York Times which implied that the MBA was acting on behalf of all bloggers, and not the MBA itself.^[13] MBA supporters,^[14] Robert Cox himself^[15] and others ^[16] have written at length in response to these criticisms.

References