Incumbent politicians hope to define journalism their way:
A new Senate bill to protect journalists has stirred up a hornet’s nest of criticism over an old nagging question: Who in the age of WikiLeaks is a “journalist”?
A bill called the Free Flow of Information Act of 2013 was sent by the Senate Judiciary Committee last week to the full Senate for a vote.
It essentially defines a journalist as someone who “regularly” or recently works for a newsgathering, editing and distributing operation and, by the way, is not a terrorist or Julian Assange.
No, the law does not mention the WikiLeaks founder Assange by name, but his ghost looms large over the bill’s careful wording as it tries to leave him out.
Sen. Diane Feinstein, a California Democrat, insisted on limiting legal protection to “real reporters” and not, as she put it, a 17-year-old with his own website….
Via Who in the Wiki-Age is a journalist? @ The Tennessean.