The Associated Press wants us bloggers to purchase a license from them for permission to quote 5 words from their stories. Ok guys, good luck with that. Recently they threatened some D-list bloggers in order to put the fear of god into everyone, but it backfired, naturally. So they're trying the good cop approach—they will not sue bloggers, they promise, and they will meet with some blogger advocacy group to hammer out an agreement. These new guidelines will be drawn up in consultation with something called the Media Bloggers Association, a.k.a. The Justice Blogiety of America, a.k.a. the Congress of Blogustrial Organizations. It's a powerless group of funny-looking nerds with no ties to mainstream "blogging" as we know it. Amusingly, after Night Editor Ryan Tate made fun of them last night, they sent him a wounded email asking why he didn't call them for comment first. OMG guys, you represent bloggers? Don't you know we never pick up phones? That email is attached, and more fun with the M.B.A. is below.
Robert Cox, President of the M.B.A., we admire your response—it's very bloggy!—but Ryan put that story up at 12 a.m.! Did you really want a call in the middle of the night asking you to confirm whether or not your organization was opaque and your legitimacy self-defined?
Cox's pissy blog post is totally great, actually, from calling Ryan "some kid" to calling us all lazy. (Once again, blogging—if it's not stolen and reposted from the AP, we don't pay attention!) "I am sure," Cox writes, "this is not nearly as exciting as covering the latest sex scandal in Washington [...? –ed] so that a Gawker blogger would be unaware of our efforts is hardly a surprise."
Sorry Robert! We're too busy covering that famous Washington sex scandal everyone is talking about to call people before we make fun of them. We hope those negotiations with the Associated Press go well, and we look forward to flat-out ignoring whatever rules you guys come up with.
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