Should
Bloggers
Be Given the
Media Exemption?
by mcjoan
http://www.dailykos.com
Sun Feb 26, 2006 at 01:58:05 PM PDT
Just as national politics was once an insiders' game, news coverage of national politics and serious political commentary were once the exclusive domain of media elites. Not any more. Bloggers have "democratized' journalism, and a coalition of bloggers has demanded the same wholesale exemption from the federal campaign finance laws that is currently provided to so-called mainstream media.
That exemption allows traditional journalists to fully communicate and coordinate with candidates, online or offline, and then spend, through their corporate employers, unlimited amounts of money publishing whatever news or commentary they please, favorable or unfavorable, fair or unfair, in any distribution channel: TV, radio, newspapers, magazines or the Internet....
On its face, the bloggers' request for rights equal to those of mainstream media seems reasonable. Their online readership, in a few instances, exceeds those of mid-sized daily newspapers, and their influence and legitimacy continues to grow, in some cases exponentially. Last summer, dozens of bloggers were issued press credentials at the two national party conventions, and several of them have been credentialed by the House and Senate Press Galleries. Recently a blogger was given a day pass to the White House Press Room.
Some bloggers want it both ways, however. They want to preserve their rights as political activists, donors and even fundraisers -- activities regulated by campaign finance laws -- yet at the same time enjoy the broad exemption from the campaign finance laws afforded to traditional journalists....
For thirty years the campaign finance laws have made a fundamental distinction between political activists and the news media, in order to protect a free press while at the same time limiting the influence of big money on federal elections. Until recently, the distinction between the news media and rest of us was clear and uncontroversial.
Bloggers blur that distinction. If anyone can publish a blog, and if bloggers are treated as journalists, then we can all become journalists. If millions of "citizen journalists," as bloggers like to call themselves, are given the rights and privileges of the news media, two consequences will follow....
[One] consequence is that the privileged status the press currently enjoys will diminish. When that happens, an erosion of its most important privilege, its ability through shield laws to protect the anonymity of its sources, will surely follow. While the FEC has no jurisdiction over shield laws, a change in the rules defining the news media in one arena is bound to affect other laws. As the pool of those considered journalists quickly expands, it is inevitable that the media's fragile privilege to refuse to answer questions about sources posed by prosecutors and grand juries will narrow.
The ramifications of the bloggers' demands are enormous. The issue before the FEC goes to the heart of the fundamental questions that define a democracy's relationship to a free press: Who should be treated as a journalist, and what special privileges, if any, should they receive?
I think we need to have Carol Darr explain to us again the distinctions between bloggers and journalists in campaign finance. And then we really need to have a bloggers' ethics conference.
Discuss (77 comments)
Bloggers
Be Given the
Media Exemption?
by mcjoan
http://www.dailykos.com
Sun Feb 26, 2006 at 01:58:05 PM PDT
Just as national politics was once an insiders' game, news coverage of national politics and serious political commentary were once the exclusive domain of media elites. Not any more. Bloggers have "democratized' journalism, and a coalition of bloggers has demanded the same wholesale exemption from the federal campaign finance laws that is currently provided to so-called mainstream media.
That exemption allows traditional journalists to fully communicate and coordinate with candidates, online or offline, and then spend, through their corporate employers, unlimited amounts of money publishing whatever news or commentary they please, favorable or unfavorable, fair or unfair, in any distribution channel: TV, radio, newspapers, magazines or the Internet....
On its face, the bloggers' request for rights equal to those of mainstream media seems reasonable. Their online readership, in a few instances, exceeds those of mid-sized daily newspapers, and their influence and legitimacy continues to grow, in some cases exponentially. Last summer, dozens of bloggers were issued press credentials at the two national party conventions, and several of them have been credentialed by the House and Senate Press Galleries. Recently a blogger was given a day pass to the White House Press Room.
Some bloggers want it both ways, however. They want to preserve their rights as political activists, donors and even fundraisers -- activities regulated by campaign finance laws -- yet at the same time enjoy the broad exemption from the campaign finance laws afforded to traditional journalists....
For thirty years the campaign finance laws have made a fundamental distinction between political activists and the news media, in order to protect a free press while at the same time limiting the influence of big money on federal elections. Until recently, the distinction between the news media and rest of us was clear and uncontroversial.
Bloggers blur that distinction. If anyone can publish a blog, and if bloggers are treated as journalists, then we can all become journalists. If millions of "citizen journalists," as bloggers like to call themselves, are given the rights and privileges of the news media, two consequences will follow....
[One] consequence is that the privileged status the press currently enjoys will diminish. When that happens, an erosion of its most important privilege, its ability through shield laws to protect the anonymity of its sources, will surely follow. While the FEC has no jurisdiction over shield laws, a change in the rules defining the news media in one arena is bound to affect other laws. As the pool of those considered journalists quickly expands, it is inevitable that the media's fragile privilege to refuse to answer questions about sources posed by prosecutors and grand juries will narrow.
The ramifications of the bloggers' demands are enormous. The issue before the FEC goes to the heart of the fundamental questions that define a democracy's relationship to a free press: Who should be treated as a journalist, and what special privileges, if any, should they receive?
I think we need to have Carol Darr explain to us again the distinctions between bloggers and journalists in campaign finance. And then we really need to have a bloggers' ethics conference.
Discuss (77 comments)
1 Comments:
Well, there is certainly a big difference between what journalists should do and what journalists actually do do, which is why I think many people are questioning how the "difference" is defined...and of course, there is nothing to prevent bloggers from adopting these codes of their own free will...many already do, and most major media outlets now have blogs...anyway, most independent bloggers probably have fewer conflicts of interest than most mainstream media outlets do. It's not because we're better people per se; it's just that we have a lot less power, and it's attendant temptations...
I will also point out that some of these codes could be critiqued - just because a professional society drafted them, doesn't make them sacrosanct...is it possible to seperate one's professional responsibilities from one's duties as a citizen, or one's personal ethics or creed? For example, the requirement for pharmacists to dispense all legal drugs prescribed by a physician, even if they don't personally agree with their use...is it ethical, according to their professional code of conduct, to refuse? Some, including most professional bodies, would say no - but some pharmacists challenge that assertion. This illustrates how thorny enforcing ethical codes can be...
I think the exemption from federal campaign finance laws the really the crux of this post...along with who gets to decide what "legitimate" media is...after all, the mainstream press has a pretty checkered ethical history, and I don't see them recusing themselves from stories on the basis on any of those problems, recent or past...
Of course, codes of ethics are always ideals, not reality...not trying to single out journos here...they are simply guidelines and tools to think with, not holy writ...if you review journalist's codes of ethics during the 20th century, I think you'll find considerable evolution...
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