SOMEONE JUST BECAME MY 100,000TH VISITOR TO OUR BLOG SITE!!!!

I wish that I could write a little blog about this issue but I can't because I still cannot connect to the information highway from my computer. I'm using someone little toy. I wonder how long it's going to take to hit 200,000????

BRENT TAYLOR FORMER BIGOT OF THE C.O.R. PARTY AND NOW IRVING LOYAL SOLDIER SPEAKS OUT AGAINST BLOGGERS!!

Taylor, originally uploaded by Oldmaison.

The final report from the Senate on the Irving Monopoly must have really favoured the Irvings because they are printing stories against me and I'm not allowed to fight back!

A Loyal true bigot is allowed to condenm this Acadian??? My God? It is indeed old Germany again! A bigot is bad enough and now a Irving Employee? Brent Taylor has been against me for years.

I'm certain that the Irvings will reward this bigot well after this latest column. I'm going to phone the editor to fine out if I got the right to reply to this bigot!

Bigot? You should have heard his big Anti-French speech in Campbellon in 1991!

If he had his way? The Acadians would be deported from New Brunswick and now he's a loyal Irving employee!!!!

Bloggers can take their messages too far

Brent Taylor
REALITY CHECK
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While serious bloggers go about their business with discipline and ethics, the kooks cast a pall over the whole medium.

Last week our legislature's administration committee had the unhappy task of banning a self-proclaimed blogger from the property of the assembly.

The directive from the sergeant-at-arms identified several grounds for the eviction, including the continued harassment of government employees at their workplace.

This "blogger" feels he has a right, as a journalist, to ply his craft - which apparently consists mostly of taking candid photos of politicians and private citizens and then posting them with accompanying commentary to his Web site - after some of the photos have been doctored and many of the articles laced with defamatory depictions and statements.

For instance, union representative Tom Mann wrote this newspaper last week defending the blogger's banishment, and was promptly termed a "bigot."

Similar libellous terms have been levelled against dozens of other New Brunswickers from all walks of life. There is no point in any of them suing this blogger, however, for he apparently has no assets and, therefore, nothing to lose.

Despite the kooks, blogging has become increasingly mainstream. In an effort to establish a set of principles to which legitimate bloggers would adhere, the Media Bloggers Association (MBA) was created to gather together those involved in the craft. The MBA adopted the following principles to be followed by its members: honesty, fairness, accuracy, transparency, accountability, trust, and, respect for the privacy of private citizens.

From a founding membership base of 22 blogs, the MBA has grown exponentially to now include 295 blogs, with new applications being received steadily.

To become a member of the MBA a blogger must, among other things, "have a demonstrated history of a serious commitment to blogging evidenced by blogging for more than several months, posting regularly and frequently, and writing posts of some reasonable level of quality."

The Fredericton blogger banned from the legislature would not even come close to meeting the standards set forth by the MBA.

He had previously applied for membership in the legislature's press gallery as a reporter.

The application was not approved, and rightly so.

As the phenomenon evolves the press gallery will, at some point, be presented with an application from a blogger that will be worthy of acceptance.

The MBA guidelines are a good start on what test ought to be applied to a blogger seeking to chronicle the political life of New Brunswick as a full member of the gallery.

Until then, both the legislature and its press gallery need not apologize for evicting harassers and disturbers. The MLAs, the public, and the employees themselves must have a safe and secure environment in which to come together to advance their legitimate causes and do the people's business.

Brent Taylor is a former MLA. He writes each Tuesday from Doaktown.