Sen. Dick Durbin: Journalists Deserve Protection But We'll Decide Who's Actually A Journalist
from the trade-your-laptop-in-for-a-notepad-for-extra-journo-cred dept
Illinois Senator Dick Durbin has penned an editorial for the Chicago Sun-Times in which he argues that journalists need some form of government-granted protection, but that the government should decide who is a real journalist and who isn't.
As he points out, there is currently no national "shield" law that protects journalists and their sources, although a bill along those lines is slowly making its way through the system. Durbin seems to feel a great many people should be excluded from this protection, though -- possibly for no other reason than the platform used.
The media informs the public and holds government accountable. Journalists should have reasonable legal protections to do their important work. But not every blogger, tweeter or Facebook user is a “journalist.” While social media allows tens of millions of people to share information publicly, it does not entitle them to special legal protections to ignore requests for documents or information from grand juries, judges or other law enforcement personnel.There's your new have-nots, if Durbin's deciding. Here's the list of who Durbin feels actually deserves the "journalist" label and its associated protections.
A journalist gathers information for a media outlet that disseminates the information through a broadly defined “medium” — including newspaper, nonfiction book, wire service, magazine, news website, television, radio or motion picture — for public use. This broad definition covers every form of legitimate journalism.The internet: illegitimate journalism. Journalism isn't a static object with a single definition, it's something people do, with or without the title, and the dissemination of these endeavors spans many platforms. While there are a lot of old school journalism outlets listed, Durbin also includes "news website," which covers a whole lot of gray area (Buzzfeed? TMZ? Vice?). Without further details, it would appear a "news website" will probably have to be anchored by one of the other "time-honored" journalism outlets.
If a newspaper journalist writes a blog on the side or maintains a Twitter account, are those sidelines protected because of his or her position, or is it only what appears on the printed page/associated news website? Or conversely, if someone's journalism efforts are mainly relegated to platforms not covered by Durbin's list but occasionally contribute to "legitimate journalism," does that cover the non-associated online work as well? No matter how these instances play out, "journalism" is being defined by media form rather than by the activity itself. While the government should recognize freedom of the press and grant protection to journalists, it becomes problematic when the definition is narrowed to pre-existing forms that don't truly reflect journalism as it exists today.
Durbin says that those who think the government shouldn't be able to define journalism need to be reminded that 49 states already do just that. That doesn't make these definitions better or more acceptable and certainly shouldn't be taken as some sort of tacit permission for the federal government to define what media forms it will protect and which it won't.
He goes on to cite recent events as evidence this protection is needed.
The leaks of classified information about the NSA’s surveillance operations and an ongoing Justice Department investigation into who disclosed secret documents to the Associated Press have brought this issue back to the forefront and raised important questions about the freedom of speech, freedom of the press and how our nation defines journalism.Journalists should certainly be shielded from those who think they should be prosecuted for exposing leaked documents. But this administration isn't interested in protecting whistleblowers and, if it wasn't running up against existing "freedom of the press protections," would probably be punishing journalists as well. Allowing the government to pick and choose who is protected will likely result in a large number of unprotected journalists, thanks to an inadequate definition. And even this additional protection is unlikely to prevent entities like the DOJ from violating the Fourth Amendment in a search for sources and whistleblowers. If you're already violating civil liberties, breaking a law isn't much of a concern.
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Filed Under: dick durbin, first amendment, journalism, shield laws
Reader Comments
The First Word
“It's a common thread through most of the discussions on TechDirt
If you believe a fundamental principle needs subdividing and classifying in its application, then it's inevitably going to be open to abuse. It's better then to question whether it's better to apply simply it across the board, scrap it completely, or carry on adding complexity. All 3 options will create errors and anomalies, but only the 3rd actively creates more work for lawyers.Subscribe: RSS
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Really?
'Well, looks like news groups A, B and D are making sure to only report on what we want them to and make us look good, so they'll be entitled to the protection of the law for another year. News group C on the other hand not only didn't do what we told them to about the information that was leaked to them, they made us look very bad in the process, so I'd say they won't be getting the protection of the law as 'journalists' this year.'
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Re: Really?
After all, not every person who writes has journalistic integrity.
I just have one caveat.
I get to determine who the People's Representatives are and who's just a corporate shill.
After all, not every member of Congress is really serving the public.
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First step in canceling freedom of the press
Don't worry citizen, even if you need a government license to operate a press, you'll still be able to speak freely.
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It's a common thread through most of the discussions on TechDirt
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USAPravda
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Re: USAPravda
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Re: USAPravda
On the flip side is the carrot. Real government run media, such as CNN, get access to talking heads in government, to embed reporters in sanitized military settings, and other privileges.
The government doesn't ask much. Really. Just a trifle. Just vilify whoever the government labels a terrorist and praise whoever the government labels a hero. Support the right policies, and you'll go far in journalism.
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Federalist Papers: Journalism or Blogging?
Wikipedia: Federalist Papers
Were these guys genuine “journalists” ? Government-approved journalists? Members of the Society of Professional Journalists? Fox News commentators? Graduates from an accredited institution of higher journalism?
Or were they just no-account bloggers?
The chief question: Would Senator Dick Durbin from Illinois be willing to grant the freedom of the press to Publius?
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Re: Federalist Papers: Journalism or Blogging?
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Re: Re: Federalist Papers: Journalism or Blogging?
So, in your opinion, The Independent Journal wasn't doing journalism.
It was non-journalism journal, then?
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Re: Re: Re: Federalist Papers: Journalism or Blogging?
None of this is relevant to anything, though. Speech is not less important, and should not be more restricted, because it's not "journalism".
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Federalist Papers: Journalism or Blogging?
The infamous Issue No. 45 of The North Briton (which the British House of Commons hath solemnly declared to have be uttered by one John Wilkes, elswhere known as sometime member of parliament and journalist), was that a newspaper, doing journalism?
How about those “several weekly very seditious papers intitled, ‘The Monitor or British Freeholder, No 357, 358, 360, 373, 376, 378, and 380, London, printed to J. Wilson and J. Fell in Paternoster Row,’ containing gross and scandalous reflections and invectives upon his majesty’s government” —were those newspapers, doing journalism?
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Federalist Papers: Journalism or Blogging?
Whether or not any given speech is "journalism" is simply not relevant, or shouldn't be, anyway. All speech should be protected, and there is no point in trying to categorize it for this purpose.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Federalist Papers: Journalism or Blogging?
Here's a short article on “Wilkes, Liberty, and Number 45”. I'd call your attention to specifically to two passages from that article. Firstly, a passage on the infamous issue no.45 of The North Briton:
Secondly, a passage from that article on the impact in the North American colonies:
Then, around the same time, the great case —and it has been called “great”, considered as one of the landmarks of English liberty— the great case of Entick v Carrington should also ring a bell for you.
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As best as I can tell, you seem to think that if speech is important, that means it's journalism. I maintain that journalism is the reporting of news, and that speech can be important without being journalism at all -- and so it's wrong to anoint certain types of speech as deserving of special protection: all speech should have that protection.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Federalist Papers: Journalism or Blogging?
You glanced through part I of Justice Brennan's opinion in Marcus? (Again? Because that one's come up before here on Techdirt.) When Justice Brennan says, “This history was, of course, part of the intellectual matrix within which our own constitutional fabric was shaped”, well, you have to have some passing familiarity with the actual history.
And I'm telling you to take a look at, for instance, the actual content of Issue no. 45 of The North Briton. Which, by the standards of the 1760s, was a newspaper.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Federalist Papers: Journalism or Blogging?
I got that. I just don't understand the relevance of it here.
Yes, and this is an important point because...?
I officially give up. Perhaps I'm just an idiot, but I'm still no closer to understanding what your point is.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Federalist Papers: Journalism or Blogging?
History doesn't have a point. History has a perspective.
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First the Fed reworked telephone law, now journalism
A recent example is the revision of telephone law, where the Plain Old Telephone companies land lines enjoy a different body of privacy law than the now ubiquitous cell phone. An arbitrary and self-serving deliniation was drawn by our legislative representatives between the same conversation held over a land line versus a cell phone, leading to the wholesale cyber stalking of the US public. Monetizing this invasion has cemented the division, making the regulatory capture crowd ambitious to retain their new status quo as the data mining oracles of marketing, data they sell to the government and to anyone else with the money.
The analogy to big media and their ambition to protect their status quo relief, offered to only the biggest media by the very folks they report on, is clear to me.
In the last few decades, many decisions made by the Feds have widened the divide of wealth and power: gerrymandering, refined demographic analysis, public universities pursuing patents, software patents, patenting life forms, public monies spent on private contractors, and special rules for those that reward and protect the sitting elected all come to mind.
It's a trend that cannot be described as just, repesentative, or as a government by the people, for the people. Denying the citizen-journalist protection is just a timid act of the self-serving elected, and deserves opposition at the ballot box.
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it's ok for the propoganda approved to leak info which may or may not put lives in danger,
it's a felony for the masses to voice their opinions in public or private.
the only opinion you are allowed to have is that which the state tells you to have.
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Criticism From The Anti-Federalist Side (The Federal Farmer)
——United States Senator Dick Durbin, June 26, 2013
“I confess I do not see in what cases the congress can, with any pretense of right, make a law to suppress the freedom of the press”
——The Federal Farmer, October 12, 1787
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Re: Criticism From The Anti-Federalist Side (The Federal Farmer)
I am opposed to special laws about journalism. Journalists should have no more or less protection than anybody else who engages in speech.
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Re: Re: Criticism From The Anti-Federalist Side (The Federal Farmer)
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What Durbin is conveniently leaving out
Yes, 48 states have rules defining journalists.
But the rules only determine who gets issued press passes to cross police lines or attend closed functions. They do not attempt to regulate who is protected under freedom of the press rules - or to regulate who is 'officially' allowed report on a news story.
Durbin's argument is all about the government able to force news reporters to name their sources. And narrowly defining who a 'real' reporter is gives them many more arms to twist next time an embarrassing news story gets released.
Once again it's all about clamping down on government whistle-blowers. Something Durbin doesn't even have the spine to admit he's trying to do.
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Re:
What is “journalism”?
Consider: In connection with the public debate surround the adoption of our present Constitution, and beginning in November of 1787, six essays addressed to James Wilson were published under the byline “Cincinnatus” in the New York Journal.
Here is a brief passage, and I ask you to consider whether this was “journalism”:
Is that journalism? Is publication of these sentiments in the New York Journal sufficient to constitute journalism?
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Why not? It's been an effective business strategy for the Mafia for a very long time.
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And why not protect journalists? It's for your own safety and you still have your rights!
1. Create a registry of journalists and issue ID's to which a journalist must qualify.
2. Background checks to make sure the person is not on a list of fugitives.
That way a government can protect your right to publish without compromising OUR security.
It's not wrong to have some moderation of any rights you have, that includes your rights to bear arms. We dont want people running around with scary guns. Dont we?
Or even worse, a crazy journalist who tweets "classified" information and then starts shooting people with a scary looking gun!
Or perhaps we can control the medium in which you can publish, that would be ideal.
Our liberties are too old and need to be revoked or updated to protect our government from terrorists...
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Re:
This must be a prime example of Poe's Law... I just can't tell.
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Simple Answer
"Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed: everything else is public relations."
Of course it seems that Durbin's defintion is the exact opposite.
(with thanks to That One Guy) for bringing this quote to my attention last week.)
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Name change
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Journalism is simply the reporting to others what has really happened in the world. Anyone can do that. Just because someone found a way to make money doing it doesn't mean there is legitimate journalism and illegitimate journalism. The only thing that makes journalism legitimate is its truthfulness.
It's kinda like music and art - anyone can do it. A few make money, but that doesn't mean they deserve special treatment, or that they can prevent others from making music and art.
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If you have to ask to exercise your right, it isn't a right
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Re: If you have to ask to exercise your right, it isn't a right
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Re: If you have to ask to exercise your right, it isn't a right
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Shield laws for journalists
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Sounds like this is a setup to eliminate in the future the protections of journalists as at that time, they will be called something else and therefore not eligible for those shield protections.
The fact that Senator Durbin chooses to address this is an indicator of just how far this sort of thing has gone already with nullifying journalist protections. Nixon couldn't have done it in his time. Why can ignoring these protections already there be possible today when they weren't possible yesteryear?
Could it possibly be too many years of clueless congress critters making laws nilly willy have created the police state already?
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So you have to get paid to do it
What other activity is singled out only if you get paid for doing it? Hhhhmmm???
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My letter to [that] Dick
I just read your article in the Chicago Sun Times about defining with whom a journalist should be affiliated. I must say that I am more then upset and disappointed in your opinion as my elected representative. As a former employee of companies like Bell Labs, I have been utilizing the internet as an information source since before its commercialization, when its primary users were universities.
In the last ten years, I have seen more fact checking done by popular blogs then I have from the mainstream media. All the major news outlets seem to run with just about any story as truth, especially one coming from Washington. Perhaps you have a point in that we shouldn’t protect everyone, but I find it more likely you wish to only protect those you already unduly influence. It is unclear to me which stories the mainstream media would have reported on, in the last 10 years, had they not been reported widely in the blogosphere first. Mainstream media is about sensationalism, not a well informed public.
The most important element in a democracy is a free press. How by any stretch of the imagination did you determine that the government is the best body to define what that should be? I don’t see how it could be considered anything other then delusional, that this sort of thing would ever function properly in a free manner. You’re proposed ‘law’ is one step away from state controlled journalism. I will not allow that to happen.
Unless you print a retraction, I will not be able to vote for you with good conscience in the next election.
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If you define journalism to mean a specific group of people, those people, you can control the news they put out.
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Great, that's all we need...
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As they all seem to want to destroy the Constitution and the rights of the people isn't it time to start removing them from office? They took an oath to uphold the Constitution and they are now more focused and making sure people are unaware of how much of it no longer applies to "We the People".
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