Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D.-Calif., thinks a proposed media shield law should be applied only to “real reporters,” not basement-dwelling, pajama-clad bloggers with no professional credentials:
“I can’t support it if
everyone who has a blog has a special privilege … or if Edward Snowden were to
sit down and write this stuff, he would have a privilege. I’m not going to go
there,” she said.
Feinstein introduced an
amendment that defines a “covered journalist” as someone who gathers and
reports news for “an entity or service that disseminates news and information.”
The definition includes freelancers, part-timers and student journalists, and
it permits a judge to go further and extend the protections to any “legitimate
news-gathering activities.”
Under the definition
proposed by Feinstein, a student working for a tiny college newspaper would get
protection, but Matt Drudge, the owner and operator of the most successful news
site on the Internet, might not.
As far as we know, the distinction Feinstein is making isn’t
mentioned in the First Amendment. But what do we know? We’re just bloggers….To
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