Legal status of bloggers debated:

[liveoaktx]

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/03/08/BLOGGERS.TMP
Journalists' shield claimed in response to Apple's lawsuit
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The impact of bloggers has even been felt in the White House press corps. Last month, James Guckert, who had been issued a press credential under the name of Jeff Gannon, was exposed by bloggers as working for a conservative organization. And blogging took a big step toward mainstream legitimacy Monday when Garrett Graff, a 23-year-old blogger from Mediabistro.com, took his place at White House briefings with an officially sanctioned one-day press credential.

Yet for all their gains, bloggers remain a disparate group. Many media experts embrace the notion that bloggers deserve the same First Amendment protections accorded all citizens. But they're not sure bloggers are actually journalists in every instance, entitled to special privileges under shield laws adopted in some states, including California.

"Under the First Amendment of the Constitution, I would be hard-pressed to find any distinction between bloggers and journalists," said Paul Grabowicz, director of the New Media program at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. But, he added, "There are some potentially really bad things that could come without any distinction. Principal among them is, if there is no distinction, things like shield laws that protect journalists go away, because they apply to everybody else.
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This is a big deal. The people who work in newsrooms trade lousy conditions and pay for power and influence. The people online who are now coming along are stealing the power and influence that people in newsrooms used to have. The newsroom has left the building
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