Feb
11
If You Are Blogging, You Need to Be Reading This …
Posted by newscoma | Posted in Tennessee | Posted on 11-02-2008
And do the laws protect those who practice it.
Go read this.
Just do it. I’ve got to chew on it before I write about it.
Silence says:
This is an apparent first for the state, and if you are a blogger, you should be following this one. I’m no lawyer but it seems to me the blogger, a member of the so-called “nontraditional media,” is practicing journalism and is therefore covered by the state’s Shield Law. That law, generally speaking, allows journalists to protect the identity of their sources.
What say you?
This puts me in the minority of bloggers, I’m sure, but I don’t consider myself a “journalist” and I don’t really consider someone who blogs that doesn’t work for a newspaper or TV or radio station in a journalistic capacity to be a “journalist”.
It seems to be a self-defining title a lot of bloggers seem to take – I think (I’m a journalist) therefore I am (a journalist).
Personally I don’t think Shield Laws or other laws should protect a non-journalist blogger from revealing a source, especially when it may be for the public good.
Hey Barry,
I think that this is very interesting. You are right about many people not falling into this category and Thaddeus pushes the envelope.
I just think folks need to be aware about it.
Now, when are we to do our movie/play? Umm, and who’s going to write it?
I’m kinda like a blog clown. I post cat pixels.
.
Seems I’ve read about this being tested in other states already. It’s a statutory situation, so what happens elsewhere provides no precedent. I we end up with a hodge podge patchwork of state laws, just watch for the feds to jump in and try to claim it for themselves. That, we certainly don’t need.
[...] Newscoma has linked to an article in the Commercial Appeal that is important to political bloggers. There’s a line that’s being drawn in the legal sand and we may be on the wrong side of the line. The question at the heart of the matter is whether a blogger should be considered a journalist. Journalists are protected from having to release the names of their sources. Bloggers may not be considered journalists, depending on how this case works itself out, and thus may not be protected. [...]
Hmmm. This one is dicey. If what Matthews is saying is true, then it’s possible that he has uncovered some serious problems within the Memphis police force. At the same time though he sounds like he is gunning for someone in particular. Is he a journalist? I think so, even though his content is on the sensationalist side.
this is sooooooooo gay……….lol
Victoria, yeah.
NC – if you can get Lucas to produce and Spielberg to direct, I’ll write it about us taking a lovely stroll on the beach
Woot!!
Great. I can’t wait, Barry. Give me a couple of weeks.
With Barry on this.
I am a political commentator. Not a journalist.
Journalists are supposed to be politically neutral their reporting. I’m a Liberal Socialist living in a society that leans Fascist. Therefore, I have a clearly Socio-Liberal agenda. But in the midst of the agenda, the facts are accurate and supported by citation.
That’s what it’s all about.
I have committed a few acts of genuine journalism in my blogging, and I duly apologize for that.
I agree with your views.