The Washington Post’s Dan Froomkin wrote about Beltway Buzz in his column today. I’ve never wanted to make a big deal out of this, but I was the first blogger to attend a White House briefing.

Garrett Graff over at Media Bistro has received a lot of praise from liberal publications for being first. Frankly, I’m not interested in seeking attention from the mainstream media like some bloggers out there. But William Beutler over at the Washington Canard tipped Froomkin to the truth. And since getting to the truth behind conventional wisdom is sort of what Beltway Buzz is all about, I’ll go ahead and play shameless self-promoter for a day. Here’s Froomkin’s write-up:

First Blogger

It has come to my attention that Garrett M. Graff, the much-celebrated "first blogger in the White House," was, technically speaking, the "second blogger in the White House."

(This would make Eric Brewer, the blogger I wrote about in Tuesday's column, the "third blogger.")

Eric Pfeiffer, who writes the Beltway Buzz blog for National Review Online, blogged from the briefing room on March 1, (scroll down to "Notes from the Gaggle") almost a full week before Graff made it in.

Pfeiffer just didn't make a big deal out of it.

Nevertheless, there are some important distinctions to be made between Pfeiffer and Graff.

Pfeiffer, although primarily a blogger, works for an established media organization that has previously been credentialed by the White House. He also reports for the magazine and has previously written for other publications. On asking to get his day pass, he tells me, he identified himself as a National Review employee who blogs on the White House and Congress.

So you could say that letting him in wasn't exactly setting a new precedent for the White House press office.

By contrast, Graff, who writes the FishbowlDC blog, is employed by mediabistro.com, an independent Web site for media professionals. He is not an established journalist who could have gotten into the briefing room under any other auspices.

So while Pfeiffer was indeed the first blogger to blog from the White House briefing room, Graff can still claim credit for being the first blogger granted a day pass purely on his blogging credentials.

And that was the precedent that paved the way for other bloggers. Brewer, for instance, is a volunteer blogger who happens to be a scientist by profession.

Just to add to the confusion, the first person to have blogged a White House event, as far as I know, is neither Pfeiffer nor Graff. It's Rex Hammock. (See my Feb. 20, 2004 column.) He blogged a private meeting with Bush more than a year ago.