End the Journalistic Privilege
As a staunch opponent of the journalistic privilege, I’m having a hard time getting nearly as worked up over this as he and she are. Nevertheless, I am quite offended by the notion that a blogger is not a “publisher, editor, reporter, or other person connected with or employed upon a newspaper, magazine, or other periodical publication” for purposes of Article I, Sec. 2(b) of the California Constitution. If Michael Jackson is truly innocent of his charges (aside from the non-criminal charges of being a distburbing weirdo), this moronic privelege might well keep the real scumbag, Martin Bashir, out of prison for helping to put the fake scumbag in. No, I’m not saying Michael Jackson is innocent. I have no strong opinion on that one way or the other (and lean toward guilt). I am saying that regardless of Jackson’s guilt, Bashir is pond scum, only a bit less useful, for refusing to provide all outtakes from his Michael Moore-ish crockumentary on Michael Jackson. For all we know, maybe this time Bashir framed a guilty man. But next time?
As a matter of policy, I can think of few worse things we could do than to expand the Helping Martin Bashir And Michael Moore Spew Their Propaganda Act to bloggers. Anyone can get a blog with a minimum of time and expense, and if doing so were everyone’s ticket to get out of ratting out his best friend, everyone would. Still, this bad law is law, at least in California (I don’t buy journalists phony, self-serving arguments under the federal Constitution), having been duly enacted by the Legislature in 1935 and since, and utlimately constitutionalized by credulous voters in 1980 by way of Proposition 5. And until that horrible law changes, it should apply to everyone consistently, or my nom de blog isn’t Xrlq, and my real name is Anthony Kennedy.
March 6th, 2005 at 3:54 pm
I wonder which way this would fall on online tech journos like Andrew Orlowsky, CNET, online-only parts of WIRED should there be such things, Gillmor, Doc, etc. etc.