Bloggers aren't part of the news media?

According to restrictions attempting to be put in place in some places such as Lake Oswego, bloggers don't have the right to sit in on a City Council meeting. Although there was no definition of the news media to Lake Oswego, they have no drafted one, after asking Mark Bunster, a local blogger to leave.

Aspects of the organization must establish themselves in order for them to fit under the desired policy at Lake Oswego, such as being "institutionalized", "well-established" and producing at least 25 percent news content. The latter is something that can actually be monitored, but the others are very subjective. What defines an organization being institutionalized and well-established? Many people have many different standards to such things. Many bloggers may not be as established as the New York Times or any other given local corporate newspaper, it becomes an interesting paradox that Lake Oswego actually puts measurements in place that could keep bloggers in a level lower than they are capable of reaching. In the drafted policy of who can be defined as the news media, they state that there must be regular reporting on the city council. This reminds me of the old saying in reference to employment that you can't get a job until you have experience and you can't get experience until you get a job. The second stipulation is that the organization must have multiple people with well defined roles. There is no other way to think of this statement than as an attack towards independent bloggers who haven't been able to establish their blogs yet and are still in the blogging at night in their pajamas stage. Nonetheless, it is an obvious fact that is not just known to journalists that independent media is growing, what reason, therefore, is there to not embrace it?

The final regulation from Lake Oswego is: "Media representatives would be allowed to attend executive sessions if they provide evidence that includes 'proof satisfactory to the City Council that the person is gathering news,' along with a press badge, a recently published news article with their byline or an editor's note on letterhead." This seems like another restrictive guideline towards independent outlets. However, this last stipulation also develops the thought that there should be not just a city level definition of a journalist or news gatherer, but a state level or something of the sort. Not something that would target bloggers, but something to include them and make them considered as journalists, which they are.