That is true, but there are very specific rules one must follow to enjoy press privilege.
The First Amendment guarantees freedom of the press, but the Supremes have enabled limitations to be put on that speech in the form of time and place, and behavior restrictions. One form is needing a permit for a parade, usually for certain hours and places. Another form is restricting press from entering an active crime scene or disaster area, to follow lawful orders to go this way or that, and behavior that can’t be perceived as interfering with law enforcement or common decency. Violate the rules of conduct, your privilege evaporates, and you become just another rioter.
For instance, no participating - no chanting, no antagonizing cops, no getting in their faces and screaming, or screaming from the fence line, no rushing up on cops and shoving your iphone into their faces as they are making an arrest, no throwing things, no participating in vandalism, no encouraging others to do any of the above. If you do those things, you’re manufacturing sensationalism and rioting instead of reporting. Rioters aren’t press.
Also disbursing when given a lawful order - giving cops their space. It’s not how fast you want to walk it’s how fast they want you to go in front of them and how far. Maintain your distance. You can move back in closer once the main group behind you are at a distance the cops feel comfortable with. Otherwise you’re interfering and you’re not press.
If you are filming in the center of a group and run away from the scene of a crime or vandalism with them, you risk Terry Searches. That’s confiscating equipment and anything in your proximity. Go to the center for a quicky photoshoot but get back on the perimeters, and again, maintain distance. If you’re perceived as part of a threat, you’re not press.
If you want to be behind the cop line, don’t wait and yell out the question when a cop is actively chasing you down the street. Wait until a skirmish line is established, it’s calm, and then make a request. somebody will have to approve it, probably not the person you ask. If it’s local cops and they know you, you might get permission. But don’t count on it. If you insist on walking the blue line to film the cops, do it one time, not 10. Ten is harassing. (why do people do that anyway, when it can be done 10 or 20 feet away on zoom just as easily?) Harassing is not press.
On the flip side, maybe this same court order could be used as a legal foundation against the black bloc individuals that suppress and beat up reporters for ‘filming faces’ or events. That would be a very good thing.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Branzburg_v._Hayes
Branzburg v. Hayes, 408 U.S. 665 (1972)
Writing for the majority, Justice Byron White declared that the petitioners were asking the Court “to grant newsmen a testimonial privilege that other citizens do not enjoy. This we decline to do.”
“Sooner or later, it would be necessary to define those categories of newsmen who qualified for the privilege, a questionable procedure in light of the traditional doctrine that liberty of the press is the right of the lonely pamphleteer who uses carbon paper or a mimeograph just as much as of the large metropolitan publisher who utilizes the latest photocomposition methods.”
How much would you bet against the order specifically stating police and federal agents are the only ones affected by the ruling?