"Citizen Journalists" at Monday's Budget Press Briefing

Keith’s note: A note for all of the “citizen journalists” who will be participating in the budget briefing on Monday at NASA HQ. This is a great idea – but this is by no means a “first”. There is a long road – one traveled by others before you to where you will be – and it started more than 10 years ago, before “blogging” was even a word, when there were no Tweetups, and the first citizen journalists dared to claim that they were legitimate media and demanded access to their government. As such, for those of us who helped pave the way (inside and outside of NASA), do us proud. Don’t waste the opportunity. Ask something useful.
Brian Welch would find this all to be rather fascinating. He had his hands full just dealing with only me …
Questions at this afternoon’s budget press conference can be tweeted with the hashtag #askNASA NASA will try and answer some of them.
Letter from the NASA Inspector General to Rep. James Sensenbrenner, 4 February 2000. Topic: NASA Watch’s application for press accreditation. Note: by this point NASA “RIF” Watch had been online for more than 3 years.
“The editor of NASA Watch has twice applied for press accreditation from NASA and was rejected both times. The first application was a verbal request to NASA Headquarters PAO for credentials to attend the launch of the Mars Pathfinder spacecraft in June 1997. That request was verbally rejected on the grounds that NASA Watch was not legitimate press but rather was closer to a “vanity press.” The editor of NASA Watch again applied (via email) for press credentials to NASA Headquarters PAO in July 1999 (see Appendix B) and was again rejected (see Appendix C) on the grounds that NASA Watch did not meet the PAO’s new policy for press accreditation (see Appendix D). NASA has no formal process for appealing rejection of press credentials.”

Rogue Webmasters, Government Executive, October 1996
“Donald Teague, president of the NASA Headquarters Professional Association, says the RIF Watch site provides invaluable information. “You have to turn it on each morning to see what’s going on,” he says. A committee of headquarters employees nominated Cowing for an agency award for running the RIF Watch site. But NASA Associate Administrator for Headquarters Operations Michael Christensen, rejected the idea. “The tone of the page is unacceptable,” says Christensen. “None of us dispute his right to run the Web site. My own personal decision was that it would be inappropriate to honor him for it.”