Meta Issue with Apple- second class citizenship for bloggers?

[liveoaktx]

http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/palfrey/2005/03/07#a806

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The meta-issue -- and one which the judge may not actually reach -- seems to be the one that Dave and Declan and Dan are focused on: in this quicksilver technological environment, with such change underway in terms of what it means to write "news" and communicate with others using the web, it's crazy that the law should establish second-class citizenship for bloggers or others who are engaged in the act of presenting or commenting on "news." (As Dan puts it: "We're moving toward a system under which only the folks who are deemed to be professionals will be granted the status of journalists, and thereby more rights than the rest of us. This is pernicious in every way.") The notion of form over function strikes me as badly outdated. And, worse, almost certainly counter-productive to the increasingly interesting and important public conversation that ordinary citizens are having with one another online.

Some have suggested that the answer for bloggers is to establish a professional association. This seems like a mistake to me -- perhaps even completely the wrong way to go. I think that the right thing to do is to continue to build the case that bloggers deserve no less than Journalists on the merits: that there's (at least) parity in terms of the value/importance/etc. of blogging to journalism, that everyone deserves a seat at the table; that there's no substantive reason for different rules to apply in the law even if the practices of blogging and journalism are indeed different; that the protection for journalists is grounded in the same first amendment that protects bloggers and that bloggers' speech is just as valuable. At the same time, I think that the citizen journalist needs not to lose sight of the fact that something bigger and different and -- overall -- frankly way more important is going on than just the tired bloggers-vs.-journalists thing. Over time, this is much the best strategy. And the courts -- if not this court in San Jose -- will get the message. And hopefully make the law right.