One small step for an organization, one giant leap for American
democracy
ePluribus Media and the diarists at DailyKos.com will be represented at Friday's National Press Club panel discussion, Who is a Journalist?. One of our members will be present to report the event.
This marks a significant turning point for ePluribus Media and for citizen journalism, a point we reached -- and negotiated -- in about 48 hours, one big reason why our community strikes fear in the hearts of corporate bean-counters.
We -- all of us at dKos and ePluribus Media, plus a couple thousand other web outlets -- are making history. It's worth a moment to consider what we are doing, where it will take us and how we can get there faster.
The energy behind the creation of ePluribus Media galvanized on Jan. 28 when
SusanG posted her diary,
Plame Leaked by Fake News Source?
Almost immediately, some 187 dKos regulars signed on to form the core of what has emerged as ePluribus Media.
More than 790 citizen journalists have joined our cause, most (but not all), from the dKos community. Collectively, we 790-plus volunteers "own" the effort, an ownership that is shared with the more than 45,000 registered dKos users who log an average of eight million unique visits every month.
Our "ownership" is also shared by hundreds of similarly inclined web outlets whose principal goal is to restore integrity to the American political process by rescuing the American free press and the First Amendment from planned obsolescence by profit-driven corporate interests.
Such a large, influential and demanding constituency constitutes an awesome force. It also constitutes an awesome responsibility.
We are human beings, and we will certainly err, but we will not deceive our audience, distort the truth or denounce our opponents ad hominum. We embrace journalism's highest ethical standards, the Shared Statement of Purpose articulated by the Committee of Concerned Journalists.
ePluribus Media's attendance at the National Press Club panel is something of an historic occasion. Don't expect fireworks. We're not attending in order to generate news. We're going there to report it, truthfully.
Formed by the Woodwards and Bernsteins of their era in 1908, the National Press Club has often needed to be pushed into the present. It banned African Americans until 1955 and women until 1971. Only in 1982 did NPC install its first woman president, Daily Oklahoman correspondent Vivian Vahlberg. Yet Eric Sevareid, eminence grise of CBS News until his retirement in 1977 (good enough to get his own FBI file), called the National Press Club "the sanctum sanctorum of American journalists," and "the wailing wall (for) everybody in this country having anything to do with the news business; the only hallowed place I know of that's absolutely bursting with irreverence."
From the NPC web site:
The National Press Club has been a part of Washington life for more than 90 years. Its members have included 17 consecutive Presidents of the United States -- from Theodore Roosevelt to Bill Clinton. Most have spoken from The Club's podium, some to declare their candidacies for the highest office in the land.
The Club founders laid down a credo which promised "to promote social enjoyment among the members, to cultivate literary taste, to encourage friendly intercourse among newspapermen and those with whom they were thrown in contact in the pursuit of their vocation, to aid members in distress and to foster the ethical standards of the profession."
Regular weekly luncheons for speakers began in 1932 with an appearance by President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt. An average of 70 luncheons each year provide a national forum for the views of Presidents, Prime Ministers, business and cultural leaders, members of the Cabinet and Congress. Over the years, major news has been made at The Club: Nikita Khrushchev, Winston Churchill, Madame Chiang Kai Shek, Golda Meir, Indira Gandhi, Charles deGaulle, Boris Yeltsin, Nelson Mandela, Yasir Arafat and many others have made headlines at the Press Club podium.
We find it newsworthy that such an auspicious organization would shine a spotlight on someone with the journalism background of "Jeff Gannon."
John Aravosis of Americablog has refused to attend the panel discussion. We respect his decision. We plan to cover it, not participate.
The journalism paradigm is rapidly changing. ePluribus Media, your organization, intends to be part of that change.