I plan on forming a union right now and extracting concessions from my computer. I am demanding that it run faster (darn Vista) or I will go on strike and just watch T.V.

What the hell does that mean?

Blogging, like I said, is becoming increasingly influential. Allowing bloggers to apply for, and receive, press credentials is a good idea where politics are involved. Unless you have a press pass you only have secondary information. Press credentials in general have nothing to do with specific organizations.

Grouping together gives a bit more weight when coupled with a set of ethical standards in reporting.

Hardly. Unions have succeeded at bankrupting or slashing productivity at companies, so there’s nothing there that indicates “professionalism”.

fight for press credentials

Fight with whom? The MSM? The bloggers don’t work for the MSM, so there’s no incentive there. Union members can negotiate things with their employers because of the employee-employer relationship. No such relationship would exist between a bloggers’ union and an MSM cabal.

Some of those are actually good points, and I’d say if you thought you could turn a buck here you’d do it too.

There’s no doubt that I’d blog full-time if I could make even close to what I currently make in my day job. However, I seriously doubt a bloggers’ union could make that happen. Would the union tell advertisers what to pay us?

But you only looked at the obvious union wording

Well, that IS the wording the story used, no?

Others see a blogger coalition as a way to find health insurance discounts, fight for press credentials or even establish guidelines for dealing with advertising and presenting data on page views.

Raising professionalism? Helping find a job doing something they enjoy? Establishing guidelines (which is better for honesty and such, though blogs are mostly opinion pieces)? Garnering more power for the advertising dollar?

Some of those are actually good points, and I’d say if you thought you could turn a buck here you’d do it too. The big thing would be making it a group and establishing guidelines much like reporters for TV news and print news. Nothing wrong with adding more credibility to an area that is increasingly having an effect on voters on both sides of the issues.

But you only looked at the obvious union wording, and not the idea of an organization for people involved in blogging. Would I join if it formed? Not likely, but I don’t think it’s a bad idea for many bloggers who are more focused on political commentary.