When I collected my CES badge this year, I noticed a peculiar thing--the cloth holster was white rather than the bright-red that was being handed out to my PC Magazine colleagues. Across the top, where theirs read "Press," mine said "Blogger." I looked at the thing for a second, and then simply went on. Fair enough; PC Magazine issues my paychecks, but my primary responsibilities are, in fact, those of a blogger.

Then I stood in line with my coworkers to pick up my CES-branded swag bag. When I got up front, the man behind the counter looked at my badge and said, "We don't have the blogger bag today. Come back tomorrow."

On a whole, though, the differences between Blogger and Press credentials were largely negligible, but they were still there. We had the badges to prove it.

I bring this up because it seems like a half-hearted attempt to legitimize bloggers at CES: a separate-but-equal distribution of credentials. Strange, seeing as how the Democratic and Republican national conventions welcomed bloggers into their ranks three years ago. Surely if such concrete establishments had been willing to embrace bloggers, the world's leading technology show would have been able to as well.

What, after all, do they have to fear from bloggers that they shouldn't expect from the "legitimate" press?

Oh, yeah; bloggers can be jerks.

Seriously, though, we kind of are. We feed upon snark like blue whales cruising through seas of sarcastic plankton.

Surely, however, well-established blogs adhere to the same standards that more traditional news outlets do. Take the Gizmodos and Engadgets of the world. They're no less trustworthy than say, PC Mag or Wired, right?

Well, here's the thing. Gizmodo writers, sporting those same white Blogger badges, brought along a couple of TV-B-Gone remotes to the show and created some home-brewed anarchy. They turned off monitors at booths, demos, and even a press conference, and damned if the result aren't hilarious.

They're also pretty nasty, and very well could have gotten a few hard-working folks fired. Gizmodo later outted itself and apologized. When pressed, Gawker owner Nick Denton said that no one at Giz would be losing their jobs.

Press credentials are another story, however. That's the Consumer Electronics Association's territory. CNET's News blog received a message from the CEA that read, in part, "The Gizmodo staffer violated the terms of CES media credentials and caused harm to CES exhibitors. This Gizmodo staffer has been identified and will be barred from attending any future CES events. Additional sanctions against Gizmodo and Gawker Media are under discussion."

As for the currency of those little white badges, I'm guessing that Motorola won't be inviting us to any press conferences in the near future...