Friday Morning with Temple Part 1 of 2 - Page 4

Temple: Journalists? When they interview people, yes, mostly. But no, not yet. Not in the way I would describe what a journalist does. Others may differ (understatement of the year there). PolState is mostly a person-by-person news aggregator, but often with inside knowledge. I want to be a news aggregator as well as a place for analysis as well as breaking news - some of which we've had. Not too much to ask, right?

Justene: There are a couple of recent issues out there that affect PolState. First, [news sources reported that] a California court ruled that bloggers are not journalists and can't protect sources. Do you agree with that and how does that hamper your ability, even with money, to take Polstate where you want it to go?

Temple: How far the FEC law should go in regard to political speech from loggers is up in the air. It's not something I've made up my mind about. Frankly I haven't even considered how - until just recently - it would effect PolState. Rudi Riet, a PolState contributor for Washington DC is attending the 2005 Politics Online Conference Thursday and Friday. I may learn more and I hope he'll write something about this aspect since FEC chair Scott Thomas will be there as a keynote speaker with Glenn Reynolds / aka Instapundit (Though I'm not too sure what he's doing there as Reynolds has protested he's not a political blogger.)

In my job as a reporter when the issue has come up, I've always tried to make the point clear to people that most of the laws for the media are really for the media and any member of the public; public access laws, open meetings laws aren't there only for Jennifer reporter. The FEC idea to regulate blog support as political contributions seems to be a non-starter but you can start to understand its importance if bloggers don't tell the truth about why they are blogging. If they are being paid to blog or even recompensed in some other way such as a
year's supply of lattes :-)

If you don't want to be taken seriously then shut up and don't try and inflate your importance up to those bloggers who do want to be taken seriously. There are all kinds of bloggers; like any stereotype or general statement it's only useful to a point.

Justene: In addition to the FEC decision, there was a recent court case in CA. Apple sued three bloggers to learn who told them about products, prerelease.
News sources reported that the CA court ruled that bloggers are not
journalists and can't protect their sources. My understanding is that the FEC is just a proposal but that the court case in CA is law unless the appellate courts get to it.

Article Author: Justene Adamec

Justene practices law in downtown LA. To chat about this or other topics, IM Justene.

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