Nick D over at Buckeye State Blog discussed this earlier today (read "Inadequate DNC Space for Bloggers"), but I feel compelled to talk about this a little more.

Last night, around 9:45PM, I received an email detailing the press logistics for the final night of the 2008 Democratic National Convention.  The email covered a variety of topics from transportation to credentialing information and...

...That email also stated that a section of the Invesco Field press box would be reserved exclusively for credentialed bloggers and space in the press box would be provided on a first-come, first-served basis.

Let me repeat that again...space in the press box for bloggers would be provided on a first-come, first-served basis.

Once again, using the words of the convention organizers...

Internet access and power hookups will be available in this workspace free of charge - a service that is not being provided for other media in the press box. Seating in this space will be provided on a first-come, first-served basis.

Using the information provided in that 9:45PM email, several bloggers (myself included) made our preparations to be in the press box at Invesco Field to reserve our space because after all, the email from the DNCC said "Seating in this space will be provided on a first-come, first-served basis."

Well, today, Nick D, myself, and more than two dozen other bloggers who are currently sitting in the Invesco Field press box have learned that first-come, first-served doesn't mean first-come, first-served when it applies to credentialed bloggers at the Democratic National Convention.

First-come, first-served means that if you're a credentialed blogger; and if you got up at 6:25 in the morning; and if you were among the first credentialed bloggers to arrive in the Invesco Field press box, then you're limited to 30 minutes in the press box.

Not only that, but once you're "rotated" out of the press box, you have to wait for one hour before you're allowed back in.

That is what first-come, first-served means in the blogger section of the Invesco Field press box.

Now, I ask you...if the DNCC went to the Washington Post, the New York Times or the Denver Post and said, "We're out of space here in the press box, so we're going to institute a 30-minute system where we rotate you out of the press box, make you wait an hour, and then bring you back into the press box for another scant 30-minute period,"  what do you think the reporters from those news organizations would say?

Well, I don't have to tell you that the reaction to such a system would be less than favorable and that's exactly how the bloggers in the Invesco Field press box are feeling.

For folks like me, who arrived early and got our space, we feel disrespected because we read the email and we made our plans according to the email, but now we're finding out in a very disappointing way that this particular email from the DNCC isn't worth the electricity used to blast it out to the 120 bloggers credentialed by the DNCC.

To borrow a line from the movie, "Mommie Dearest", How sad is that?