Bloggers feeling dissed by federal shield law | News.blog | CNET News.com

Bloggers feeling dissed by federal shield law | News.blog | CNET News.com: “The blogosphere isn’t exactly an objective place to turn for feedback on a proposed federal shield law that protects ‘real journalists,’ but probably not bloggers, according to its author, Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., who was quoted on the matter in Editor & Publisher.

But for what it’s worth, most bloggers aren’t happy about the idea of being excluded from the proposed Free Flow of Information Act, which has been up for debate, but currently is worded in a way that protects anyone who ‘publishes a newspaper, book, magazine, or other periodical in print or electronic form.’

Perhaps more inflaming to bloggers was Lugar’s comment Monday at a journalism conference. ‘As to who is a reporter, this will be a subject of debate as this bill goes farther along,’ he said. ‘Are bloggers journalists or some of the commercial businesses that you here would probably not consider real journalists? Probably not, but how do you determine who will be included in this bill?’”

(Via CNet.)