Bloggers would "probably not" be considered journalists under the proposed federal shield law, the bill's co-sponsor, U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar (R.-Ind.), told the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) Monday afternoon.
I've written before about the dangers of government assuming it gets to decide who an authorized journalist is.
We've seen a politically disfavored newspaper publisher denied entry to a Homeland Secury press conference.
We've explored instances where bloggers have covered vital liberty-related stories ignored by the "official" press.
We've seen judges presume to weigh in.
At the federal and state level.
I personally have been subjected to police harassment for asking Sarah Brady a question at my neighborhood park. And I personally have shielded the identity of a source in order to protect him from reprisal for information about the inner-workings of a government agency. On more than one occasion. (In the interest of full disclosure, I now have a press pass issued by my magazine publisher--but the majority of my writing was done before this, and I don't believe a card should give me privileges and immunities over other bloggers--plus there's no guarantee the government would consider writing for a gun magazine to be "legitimate" journalism.)
And we've seen how "establishment" media, like Reuters, are little more than propaganda outlets.
Dick Lugar can go to hell.
