Feinstein wants the power to jail Bloggers

Feinstein to Bloggers:

'Criticize the government and go to jail.'

Naturally the pro-government lap dog Elite "Media"
does not need Reporter Shield Laws.

The Elites are attacking a Reporter's Shield Law in Congress to make sure that the Internet Media will be exempted and open to government harassment and arrest.

We do have a Bill of Rights, but that is so dated, so 18th Century.  Who cares about freedom anyway?

Left-wing loon California Senator Dianne Feinstein has proposed an amendment to the Media Shield Law that would limit the law’s protection only to “real reporters”.   Internet Bloggers and other upstart alternative media types would have zero protection against Feinstein's All-Powerful-State.

A real reporter, declared Comrade Feinstein during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, is “a salaried agent” of a media company like the New York Times or ABC News, not a shoestring operation with volunteers and writers who are not paid.

Feinstein voiced her concern “that the current version of the bill would grant a special privilege to people who aren’t really reporters at all, who have no professional qualifications,” like Bloggers and citizen journalists.

TRANLATION  -  Those damn Bloggers can't be controlled.  They might even print the truth and alert the public that the Elites are screwing them over.

Frightened to Death
The corrupt Ruling Elites are frightened to death of
free Internet news sites that they cannot control.

Her amendment, to be submitted for Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Il.) as well, not only retains the requirement that a person “regularly” engage in journalism to enjoy shield law protections, but moreover adds new requirements that would make it especially difficult for self-publishers such as independent Bloggers and citizen journalists to be protected under the law.

Indeed, her new requirements for being either salaried or at least affiliated with a news “entity” seem to purposefully target these self-publishers reports the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

These problems are rooted in the vagueness of many key terms in her definition of journalist. Indeed, most essential terms are not defined. While vagueness provides an interpretative battleground, self-publishing Bloggers and citizen journalists are disadvantaged in this fight.

Feinstein’s amendment effectively advances a traditional vision of journalism through the three definitions of journalist that it provides, each of which requires that a person be affiliated with a journalistic “entity” or institution (including news websites and other digital news services, and other periodicals distributed digitally).

Specifically, the amendment requires that a journalist meet one of the following definitions:

1. working as a “salaried employee, independent contractor, or agent of an entity that disseminates news or information;”
2. either (a) meeting the prior definition “for any continuous three-month period within the two years prior to the relevant date” or (b) having “substantially contributed, as an author, editor, photographer, or producer, to a significant number of articles, stories, programs, or publications by an entity . . . within two years prior to the relevant date;” or
3. working as a student journalist “participating in a journalistic publication at an institution of higher education.”

There are problems with each of these three definitions.  As EEF pointed out in the Electronic Frontier Foundation's critique of the House’s bill, requiring that an individual is “salaried” is problematic because many people do journalism but do not do it as their primary source of income. Further, it is entirely unclear who or what an “agent” or “entity” is.

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Crushing Freedom of the Press.
The powerful and corrupt Ruling Elites hate a free press with a deep and seething hate.  That is why through advertising spending, insider corporate ownership and deals they have effectively neutered the press.  Move along.  Nothing to see here.
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But along comes Internet and Blogger news sites that can spread unfiltered stories around the world in 24 hours.  The Elites are frightened because these citizen journalists now own their own Internet printing press and cannot be bought and paid for.
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The Federalist Blog, like many others, is non-profit.  You cannot buy me off. . . . well, let's not go that far.  I would like my own Caribbean island.  But barring that, those of us who believe in freedom will not back down from speaking out.