With Judith Miller now in jail, many newspapers are calling on Congress to pass a federal shield law (see, for example, here, here, and here). By my reading, the proposed law would only provide protections to members of the MSM (or bloggers affiliated with the MSM). As I wrote a few months ago,

This bill [the Free Flow of Information Act of 2005] … explicitly excludes all blogs, online news sites, and webzines from journalistic protections, unless they are affiliated with a traditional media outlet (e.g., newspaper, magazine, radio or TV station). Thus, blogs run by James Taranto, Kevin Drum, and Eric Alterman would qualify for journalistic protections (these blogs are affiliated with traditional media outlets), but The Drudge Report, Instapundit, and CNet would not. Slate would be protected (it is owned by the Washington Post Company), but Salon would not.

Glenn Reynolds is right: “journalists should get the same privileges the rest of us get: No more, no less.”

No matter how much one feels for Ms. Miller, legislation that confers protections to some journalists while denying it to others is something bloggers of all political stripes should oppose.

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