Blogging as Journalism...how far we have come
I was watching an episode of Law and Order last night, it was from the Benjamin Bratt/Jerry Orbach era...i.e. back in the day, it was when Bratt had just started on the show, so in 1995.
Anyhoo...one of the witnesses to the murder they were investigating posted pieces on an electronic bulletin board. The witness was reluctant to testify so he claimed protection under the press shield law, saying he was a journalist and shouldn't have to reveal his sources (he claimed to have not seen the crime in person, but talked to people immediately after it happened).
The defense brought in a professor of journalism to ask if he considered the BBer a journalist. And he agreed he was. The prosecution was incredulous about this, and tried to argue that the BBer definitely wasn't a journalist.
And it just struck me, fast forward 13 years things are a lot different. Jury members wouldn't look so confused about this whole new "internet" medium, and bloggers could and can probably decently stand behind the press shield law.
Anyhoo...one of the witnesses to the murder they were investigating posted pieces on an electronic bulletin board. The witness was reluctant to testify so he claimed protection under the press shield law, saying he was a journalist and shouldn't have to reveal his sources (he claimed to have not seen the crime in person, but talked to people immediately after it happened).
The defense brought in a professor of journalism to ask if he considered the BBer a journalist. And he agreed he was. The prosecution was incredulous about this, and tried to argue that the BBer definitely wasn't a journalist.
And it just struck me, fast forward 13 years things are a lot different. Jury members wouldn't look so confused about this whole new "internet" medium, and bloggers could and can probably decently stand behind the press shield law.
posted by CaliValleyGirl at 3:57 PM
1 Comments:
Yeah, I was just thinking the other day how, 15 years ago, most of our thoughts (meaning we regular people) would have been just that--OUR thoughts. But now we can post them on the world wide web and have an audience that used to be reserved for only noteworthy folk. It's weird!
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