Blogger told she’s not a journalist, fined $2.5 million: This is an important case. The Oregon blogger, Crystal Cox, runs a number of legal sites that play whistleblower to various firms. One of those firms, Obsidian Finance Group (they of obsidianfinancesucks.com) sued over defamatory postings. Nearly all of the allegations were thrown out — except for one. The post was fact-based, Cox claimed, as it was based on a source inside the company. But here’s the important part: A federal court claims that she’s not a journalist, despite the fact that the post was journalistic in nature, and she’s not subject to the shield laws that protect journalists in her state. Hence … the fine. This is important. Follow this story.
Wow. WOW. As a former “real journalist,” this is horrifying. Whistleblowers AND journalists (even ones on the little ol’ Interwebz) should be protected under the law. Surprise, surprise: federal courts siding with a corporation over an actual person!
-Jess
This is seriously scary and wrong.
I read this yesterday and had a bit of a freak out.
Then what qualifies you to be a journalist?! I mean the definition of Journalist is a person who practices the occupation or profession of journalism, and a person who keeps a journal, diary, or other record of daily events. and in case anyone is confused about the term journalism (the occupation of reporting, writing, editing, photographing, or broadcasting news or of conducting any news organization as a business; press; a course of study preparing students for careers in reporting, writing, and editing for newspapers and magazines; and writing that reflects superficial thought and research, a popular slant, and hurried composition, conceived of as exemplifying topical newspaper or popular magazine writing as distinguished from scholarly writing)
