Credentials? We don’t need no…oh forget it

Scott has an interesting post up based on an IFP panel he attended that has him riffing on the idea of online press rooms and how frustratingly closed they are. His basic point is one that I’ve made often: Why are studios making it so hard to get their marketing content? If I’m willing and able to spread the word of your movie then why do I have to jump through hoops and pass some sort of test in order to be allowed into the press room? As Scott says, everyone is in the media.

Of course Peter Bart of Variety doesn’t think bloggers are doing – or even are capable of doing – anything right. We’re all just traffic-obsessed narcissists. Karina dissects Mr. Bart’s screed quite nicely but allow me to add my quick thoughts.
Despite Bart’s wishful thinking, there’s no way self-publishing is going back in the bottle. But not all of us fit his description of being hopped up on Red Bull while seeing if our post about Lindsay Lohan’s Underoos is getting madd traffic. Some of us, like Bart himself, just like writing and now find ourselves in the position to create our own platforms for getting our stuff out to the masses.

Some bloggers are just in it for the numbers, sure. There are also a fair number of professional trade magazine writers who have reputations and agents that protect them from being fired after they launch ill-advised attacks on, for all intents and purposes, the magazine’s readers. But some of us have the good sense not to say that out loud.