This blogger, Mona Zhang, wonders whether this judge did right in ruling that a blogger is not a journalist:
Apparently it made a legal difference here in a defamation case. Crystal Cox was sued for defamation.
I’ll post here my comments in response:
The only “standard” for new media old media should be the same as always, and anybody who puts text in front of you qualifies as “press” for purposes of the definition in the First Amendment. Newspapers should not have one micron more privilege than any blogger or commenter anywhere on the Internet, period!
“Traditional journalism” has let us down in fact, due precisely to the legal and investment barriers for someone to speak their mind. For example, all traditional journalists have participated in another new mini-holocaust in Libya by leaving so under-reported the racist massacre of an entire town of 10,000 blacks.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/new…
Some old-line media made it a back-page story for ONE DAY because it totally destroyed the conformist government-media complex line that these were simply freedom-fighters trying to end a dictatorship. And the fact that these “rebels” were cutting crosses into the bodies of these blacks (because many of them were Christians), barely made a blip.
The Electronic Freedom Foundation is a good place to find clarity with issues like this one:
https://www.eff.org/press/releases/oregon-defamation-decision-could-chill-free-speech
Related articles
- Bloggers Are Not Journalists Rules Portland Judge – 10,000 Words (currentbuzz.org)
- Bloggers: Journalists? (wir-sprechen-online.com)
- Federal judge: Montana blogger is not journalist (AP) (cash-bandit.com)
- Ore. judge rules blogger is not journalist (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
- Ore. judge rules blogger is not journalist (seattlepi.com)
- Is a blogger a journalist? Not in Oregon (chicagoreader.com)
- The Daring Digital Decision: Bloggers Are NOT Journalists (digitalbrandmarketing.com)
- Blogger Must Act Like Journalist To Be Treated Like One (pixiq.com)
- A $2.5 Million Libel Judgment Brings the Question: Are Bloggers Journalists? (foxnews.com)
- Crystal Cox Loses $2.5M Suit: When Is a Blogger a Journalist? Or Not? (blogher.com)
- Blogger in Oregon Loses Defamation Case, Judge Weighs in on Who is “Really” a Journalist (reason.com)
- U.S. Court: Crystal Cox, a blogger, isn’t a journalist – a costly $2.5m distinction line (nextlevelofnews.com)
- Oregon Defamation Decision Could Chill Free Speech (eff.org)
Tags: Crystal Cox, Defamation, First Amendment, First Amendment to the United States Constitution, Journalist, Libya, Old media, Oregon
Trutherator's Weblog 
January 19, 2012 at 9:17 pm
Mona,
I am delighted that you found my post on this topic informative enough to site it in your related articles. ‘Bloggers as journalists’ seems to be just one of the issues facing those of us who have a presence on the internet. To add to the confusion and control issues is the present possible censorship rulings. We certainly like in an exciting time when one does not know what will come into question next.
January 20, 2012 at 3:21 am
We need to always be vigilant..