BLOGGERS BEWARE: YOU ARE not JOURNALISTS

Democrats gone WILD.

And, when a Democrat is WRONG, we WILL report it.

Personal note: For the most part, I respect Dianne Fienstein as a politician, although, I don’t always agree with her opinions, policies, or practices. This is one of those times that I must publicly disagree with her.

Eric Boehm, www.watchdog.org reports:

In a proposed amendment to a media shield law being considered by Congress, Feinstein writes that only paid journalists should be given protections from prosecution for what they say or write. The language in her proposal is raising concerns from First Amendment advocates because it seems to leave out bloggers and other nontraditional forms of journalism that have proliferated in recent years thanks to the Internet.

McClatchy reported:

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., wondered whether it could be used to provide protections to employees of WikiLeaks, an organization that allows anonymous sources to leak information to the public. “I’m concerned this would provide special privilege to those who are not reporters at all,” she said.

Chuck Schumer : “The world has changed. We’re very careful in this bill to distinguish journalists from those who shouldn’t be protected, WikiLeaks and all those, and we’ve ensured that,” “But there are people who write and do real journalism, in different ways than we’re used to. They should not be excluded from this bill.”

“The best kind of fiction is truer than any kind of journalism.”-Hunter S. Thompson

The internet has facilitated a new age of journalism; Fact vs. Fallacy/Opinion vs. Truth. Today, the writer has the ability to share information with a broader audience, with a clear caveat : the burden of truth has shifted to the reader. A good journalist or blogger will cite their sources of information-and it is up to the reader to consider/validate the source. (I learned the importance of citing sources in High School, Undergrad studies, and the importance of citing scholarly sources in Grad school). Information, news, blogs, journals, postings of any nature should be disregarded unless the sources are referenced; even then, it is imperative to verify the sources to distinguish between special interest groups posing as news machines, manufacturing propaganda.

I fear that Feinstein’s efforts are essentially throwing out the baby with the bathwater; And, although countless instances of inaccurate reporting by unpaid bloggers AND paid journalists is a fact, the benefits of being able to responsibly disseminate information without recourse is my constitutional right that I will defend with my life.