The Plain Dealer story is up. The reporter quotes to one blogger -- Tom Blumer at BizzyBlog. They talk to a bunch of journalism professors who -- surprise -- cling to an old media mindset:
- "I can go work on your car, take the gas cap off and look at the carburetor, but in no way does that make me a mechanic," said Hendrickson, an assistant professor of mass communications at John Carroll University.
Media lawyers fear the issue will prompt changes in the state's shield law, which protects reporters from testifying before grand juries and trial juries about matters involving confidential sources.
"This certainly has the potential to affect it," said Timothy Smith, a media-law professor at Kent State University. The shield law "could be broadened so much that the legislature steps in and does something about it. Seldom is that ever good."
5 comments:
Pho --
After reading John's story in The Plain Dealer -- my old and beloved employer -- I am taking the day off and maybe the week off and working in my yard and plastering my house. I feel like people who work at newspapers, or worked at newspapers as profs, are defining journalism, and they are, it looks to me, selfishly defining it to mean themselves. They are insiders, we who work the Web are outsiders, and they don't want us inside. I guess we have muddy feet.
This is like the dawn of rock 'n' roll, when the big bands and symphonies didn't want to recognize the kids and blacks with electric guitars, saxes and drums as musicians. Sure the kids were raw. But they left the others in their dust.
And, of course, there is the whole short shrift thing in that we keep seeing in the papers -- quote "experts" who are wedded to the old and not dancing to the new.
Of course, that said, there is a beautiful temple to rock music that wound up in Cleveland even though it honors a form that wasn't considered "music" by the purists when the sound caught the public's fancy. Wonder how it got there.
Old newspaper saying comes to mind: We'll cover the crucifixion but miss Christianity.
Apropos?
Totally apropos, Bill. And if you need house fixups to add to the list, let me know! Though I'd rather you write.
Yea Bill, I agree with Jill. When the MSM throws condescending barbs like this, I feel like we need more of blogs like Daily Bellwether, not less.
It's kind of like letting educators define what is an appropriate public school model!
I am not a legal scholar, but it seems significant to me that in the actual handwriting of the Bill of Rights (as displayed by the National Archives), the word "press" is not capitalized, as compared to the word "State" in 2nd Amendment. That suggests to me that the Founders did not consider the existance of a formal entity called "The Press" as much as it demanded that no one with a printing press should be censured. In that vein, a blog is no different that a printing press in a back shed, and a blogger is no different than a pamphleteer.
I am reminded of a question a mentor once asked: "What is a leader?" I answered with a bushel basket of words. His answer? "A leader has followers." I think this can be applied here as well. Q: "Who is a member of the press?" A: "Anyone who has readers."
PL
I like that last line, Paul!
Post a Comment