[.cnI redruM]

>>>>>>>>>The First Amendment was intended to keep political speech free; everything else was open to debate. Today, the leaders of the First Amendment industry see it exactly the other way around.

[Alberta's Child]

If everybody can be a journalist simply by pecking away at a keyboard, then tens of millions of bloggers, newsletter writers and coupon-clipper weekly editors are journalists. If that's the case, then such a sweeping right is unenforceable and dangerous.

Exactly.

I would add two more reasons who journalists should not be protected by any kind of "shield law" . . .

1. Such a protection effectively enables a journalist to publish blatantly false stories without fear of criminal prosecution.

2. One of the interesting aspects of the Judith Miller case that hasn't received much attention is that her testimony basically exonerated someone (Libby) who might have been facing potential criminal charges.

Point #2 is a particularly damning indictment (pun intended) of anyone in the media who supported Miller's refusal to testify in the case. A person who is willing to expose someone else to possible criminal prosecution rather than testify truthfully in court should spend the rest of her life behind bars.

[xzins]

I support any journalist who goes to jail protecting his/her sources. If they don't protect them, then special information won't be brought to them by the fearful, the illegal, or the scheming. Those things when they show up are good insights into how the system works.

The limitation on this, of course, is the jail sentence itself. I support them when they go to jail. I didn't say that I support their NOT going to jail.

That should make them very careful about what they'll go to the mat for.

[Tzimisce]

You're right!

Currently they're forcing the FEC to crack down on blog sites like FR while Judith Miller is testifying for FEDERAL shield laws.

But I'm sorry - the Press has a long history of "unbiased" support for the Democrat party. The Left isn't going to turn its back on its supporters.

[MikeHu]

The problem with the mainstream media is that they're hiring too many Jimmy Olsons, and not enough Supermen.

[MikeHu]

The real problem with guilds or trade unions, or any exclusive club, is that you have to establish the rules so you're recruiting the talent and genius in the world to your side, and not retaining the deadbeats that they can't get rid of and nobody else wants. Those people force out those with talent and ability -- to the other side, and that becomes the seed for their eventual self-destruction, while the other side shines with brilliance, creativity and imagination.

The writing found in establishment media is of losers trying to convince everybody else they are winners. Meanwhile, the vast majority of people ignore them -- knowing one day, they will die.

[NixonsAngryGhost]

Unholy-priesthood privileges begone!

The Pharisees of Journalism have always considered themselves the arbiters of US culture and politics.

These self proclaimed high priests are nothing more than Bolshevic-Stalinist subversives.

Ladies and gentemen you have met the enemy, besides Islamo fascism.