UPDATE: Taricani backs protection for bloggers.
In an e-mail to On Politics, following a request for comment, Jim has this to say:
In general, I think, in the spirit of why our Founding Fathers put the freedom of press clause in the First Amendment, that bloggers should be included. I consider bloggers much like the pamphleteers of Franklin's days....the "first press" if you will.
However, bloggers not supported by a well-greased organization will face monumental financial problems if they have to defend themselves in a case where the government is after their source.
Also, once a shield law is on the books, I assume any blogger asking for coverage, whether bloggers are included in the law, will have to present that to a federal judge, who will them make a determination about who is, and who is not covered.
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It's no stretch to think that WJAR-TV newsman Jim Tariciani is pleased with the surprising progress of a shield law to help reporters protect their sources. But as the New York Times' David Carr writes, there's debate about whether the same protection should be extended to bloggers.
Journalists have been watching with amazement as a federal shield law protecting reporters from revealing their sources, a long-sought-after safeguard for investigative journalism, gained traction in Congress and may actually pass. But the air of optimism and expectation is not hanging over bloggers. Although, as the law currently sits, citizen journalists and bloggers seem eligible for the same protections, some are worried about an amendment from Senator Charles Schumer that would leave them behind. Writing at Mediashift.org, Rob Arcamona said:
It is yet to be determined whether the final version of the shield law will reject Sen. Schumer’s amendment and protect citizen journalists alongside their paycheck-depositing brethren. Nonetheless, Congress and the rest of us should be crystal clear on one point: if citizen journalists are not covered by a federal shield law when it is first enacted, they will never be protected by such a law. It is an all-or-nothing game, and right now citizen journalists are losing.
A provision defining journalists as people who are paid to report has been removed, but bloggers still worry that the Schumer amendment will leave them exposed while members of the mainstream media enjoy new protections. Mr. Arcomona and others are concerned that when the final negotiations begin in earnest, bloggers will become one more chip on the table and perhaps an expendable one at that. He suggests that mainstream media organizations, uneasy bedfellows of bloggers, will lose interest in the issue once their reporters are protected. Speculation that protection would eventually be extended to bloggers after the bill became law is wishful thinking.
