No Protection for Bloggers

What did people do before the Internet? For that matter, what did cavemen do for entertainment? Was it all about surviving and hunting? Seriously boring. They didn’t even have an X-box let alone XM Radio. Their version of blogs were writing on the cave walls. I would have died an early age, probably of boredom.

Today, all kinds of people blog about all kinds of subjects. I never considered myself a “journalist” in any sense. I merely write about what I feel at the time. My writing is highly opinionated so, unlike a journalist, I have no pretense of being “fair and balanced”. My writing is what it is, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing. People who come here to read know they are reading my viewpoint.

Also, unlike journalists, I have no legal protections for what I write, although, many journalists today would also say their legal rights as journalists are being eroded over time as well.

Depending on whom you ask, bloggers are either “citizen journalists” who are democratizing media, or bloviating loudmouths posting ill-formed opinions on personal websites between trips to the fridge. They are victimizers when they assault the news organizations they love to hate, and victims when they are treated as “real media” by litigious companies out for blood. [...]

To the Electronic Frontier Foundation, bloggers are “online journalists” who should be treated as print reporters under the law, or a “pack of wolves hacking at their keyboards with no oversight, no editors and no accountability”... [...]

In the end, maybe irritable gossip zine Gawker has it right. Editors there have referred to blogs as the “medium beloved by ’citizen journalists’ and ’14-year-old girls’ alike.”

But should bloggers receive protection under the law as regular reporters? (source)

I don’t know the bloggers they are referring to, but this blogger talks about his real-life situation and also gives opinions on different news articles of the day. And I ALWAYS cite my source if using someone else’s work. My life is not so exciting that I know the next target of Al Qaeda, post it to my blog, but don’t want to reveal my sources. But let’s say that there was such a case, perhaps a bit less extreme. Something I knew about, posted it, made others aware of it, and some government agency wanted to know my source of information. Would I have to give it up, or could I claim that I’m a “journalist” and say that I’m protected?

To me, the argument seems ludicrous. I am no journalist, and I would never claim to be, but that’s apparently not the case with many bloggers out there. Even journalists are no longer able have protection against being forced to reveal their sources.

Two journalists facing jail for refusing to reveal their sources had their appeal quashed yesterday. A panel of three judges panel ruled unanimously that they had no constitutional right to withhold the identity of their contacts from a criminal investigation.

The case has wide-reaching ramifications for freedom of the press in the United States. (source)

I think that is unfortunate because why would anyone talk to a journalist now without guarantees that their identity will be protected? This is a huge blow to freedom of the press and will have huge implications on what issues will come to light in the future. That directly effects us.

For bloggers, we never had this protection, although some have tried to claim that we did.

...contrary to conventional wisdom, journalists don’t have these protections. The press has been under assault from the legislative and judicial branches for the past 40 years. These constitutionally protected privileges have become essentially meaningless to reporters and, by extension, everyone else. Bloggers simply can’t count on the law to protect them from the law. [...]

Most ominously for the blogosphere, Judge David B. Sentelle, in addressing reporters’ privilege, asked if it protected “the proprietor of a web log: the stereotypical ’blogger’ sitting in his pajamas at his personal computer posting on the world wide web his best product to inform whoever happens to browse his way? (source)

Well, now I’m wondering if someone has surveillance set up on me (looking out my window for cameras pointed at my house). I do often blog in my pajamas (silk, no less! - deep navy blue with little beige diamond figures), or in the buff (if you are really lucky and it’s in the middle of the night)*.

Besides, I will admit that I have times where my I feel my writing is quite good. There are other times that it’s not so good. I am not a professional journalist. As such, I don’t have to go through twenty rough drafts to publish here. I spell check and proof read it. Beyond that, how good the writing is depends very much on my mood. It’s tough to worry about writing well if you are depressed and down (and no, I’m not saying that I’m always depressed and down). But, being depressed and down is also legitimate and does it not also have a place in the writing, if it effects that writing?

What journalistic standards would a diary have to adhere to? What I write would go into a diary or personal journal. The only difference is, I share my journal with the world.

...would it not be possible for a government official wishing to engage in the sort of unlawful leaking under investigation in the present controversy to call a trusted friend or a political ally, advise him to set up a web log (which I understand takes about three minutes) and then leak to him under a promise of confidentiality the information which the law forbids the official to disclose?”

The judge seems concerned that bloggers (in pajamas, no less) might be used by their sources. (source)

Well, for my blog, I suppose the only way I could be used by someone else to leak information before it became public would be something on the order of someone informing me that Jennifer Lopez is secretly dating a man who is gay, but she doesn’t know it, and neither does Hollywood. And, I would tell my source that I would never reveal their identity EVER! (unless I was tied up and they used electricity or reptiles). Then, all bets are off.

* disclaimer: this does not imply that I sleep “in the buff” (naked) nor does it imply that I do not sleep “in the buff” (naked).