We’ll have a lot more to say about this later because it brings up a lot of important issues, and because we’d like the people involved to describe their experiences some more, but for now I’d like to point you to a City paper article about our efforts to cover a County Legislature meeting:

Before the May 8 County Legislature meeting, President Wayne Zyra asked two of the people gathered there - Sahar Nassachi and Andre Chappel - to leave the area.

(snip)

Questioned by reporters and several others, Zyra said that the two weren’t “credentialed” media representatives. He said the next day that he differentiates the press from bloggers through their responsibilities and established code of ethics. “Those individuals last night are no different than any other public individual,” he said.

To me, that last line is the money quote: “you’re no different from any other public individual, hence you have no rights.” The contempt for the public is farily palpable.

They also speak with Jack Rosenberry, a professor in St. John Fisher College’s communications/journalism department, who discusses the pros and cons of citizen journalism as opposed to traditional journalism. We’ll have more to say about this debate later, but there’s a point here that has nothing to do with the relative merits of blogs versus newspapers.

The point is this: the public has a right to know what is going on in our government. Every member of the public has the right to attend meetings of the County Legislature and to report on what they see. The D&C does not devote adequate coverage to things like this (not a criticism, I know they’ve got lots of other stuff to cover) — it’s not a matter of good versus better, it’s a matter of something versus nothing.

This is not about our bona fides as journalists, it’s about the County Legislature’s efforts to avoid public scrutiny.