The Blogging Press

The cure for the evils of democracy is more democracy!

H. L. Mencken, Notes on Democracy, 1926

The freedom of the press, the voice of the electorate, is one of our most sacred constitutional tenets and protections.

The first amendment, as written:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

It is clear, succinct and lacks any ambiguity. It does not quantify ‘the press’ in any manner.

It is therefore troubling to consider the following composite of information, drawn from various sources, demonstrating that the First Amendment is under assault, again: (the acquired information is reprinted here in a different font throughout the post)

The first version of a media shield law that handily made it through the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday defined for the first time what constitutes a “real reporter” deserving of extra protection versus what Sen. Dianne Feinstein called a “17-year-old blogger” who doesn’t deserve a legal shield.

That Congress is attempting to define “journalist” at all in order to expand protections after a number of high-profile leak cases and ensuing Justice Department prosecutions  suggests that the law would subvert a free press by giving institutional advantage to government-approved media outlets.

In its attempt to define who’s a journalist and who’s not, is the US Senate trying to say that Thomas Paine, a corset-maker, wouldn’t have deserved the same protections from government heavy-handedness as a newspaper publisher like Ben Franklin?

While Mr. Paine eventually edited magazines in the United States, he’s best known for his pamphleteering days, when he self-published “Common Sense,” one of the American Revolution’s most poignant calls to arms. Modern bloggers, the Madison Conservative among them, see themselves as the inheritors of the pamphleteering tradition, and many wondered on Friday whether Paine would be covered under the proposed law.

The bill simply adds extra protections against being forced to testify about sources for established reporters and freelancers with a “considerable” amount of publishing experience. It also allows a judge to make a declaration as to who’s a journalist and who’s not in an attempt to build the shield as wide as possib

“All we’re doing is adding privilege to existing First Amendment rights, so there is, logically, zero First Amendment threat out of this,” said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, (D) of Rhode Island.

Any assault, in any form, against the press is a dangerous omen. Tyrants often start their reigns by commandeering the media, and doing so  for what they deem ‘the public interest’.

Congress must not be allowed to determine what is and what is not ‘the press’. The internet has given voice to society in ways never before seen, but the public must be allowed to determine what they deem to be viable press and what they deem to be nonsense.

Delineation by a government as to what constitutes ‘the press’ is a harbinger of ill intent.

The American people must not surrender their rights and responsibilities to a free press.