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Published On: Sun, Aug 11th, 2013

Dianne Feinstein backs Media Shield Law to protect only ‘real reporters’

California Senator Dianne Feinstein has proposed an amendment to the Media Shield Law, a law targeting the First Amendment which would limit the law’s protection only to “real reporters,” not bloggers and other upstart alternative media types.

Poster for The Reporter. 4 December 2010 N easter12345 via wikimedia commons

Poster for The Reporter. 4 December 2010 N easter12345 via wikimedia commons

A real reporter, declared Feinstein during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, is “a salaried agent” of a media company like the New York Times or ABC News, not a “shoestring operation with volunteers and writers who are not paid.”

Feinstein voiced her concern “that the current version of the bill would grant a special privilege to people who aren’t really reporters at all, who have no professional qualifications,” like bloggers and citizen journalists.

Last week, Senator Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, worried the Shield Law, if passed, would be used to protect whistleblowers and others who ferret out government corruption.

“The world has changed. We’re very careful in this bill to distinguish journalists from those who shouldn’t be protected, WikiLeaks and all those, and we’ve ensured that,” Schumer said. “But there are people who write and do real journalism, in different ways than we’re used to. They should not be excluded from this bill.”

Back in June Dick Durbin penned a recent op-ed in the Chicago Sun-Times called, “It’s time to say who is a real reporter.”

“To those who feel politicians shouldn’t define who a journalist is, I’d remind them that they likely live in one of the 49 states, like Illinois, where elected officials have already made that decision,” Durbin writes. “It’s long past time for Congress to create a federal law that defines and protects journalists.”

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About the Author

- Writer and Co-Founder of The Global Dispatch, Brandon has been covering news, offering commentary for years, beginning professionally in 2003 on Crazed Fanboy before expanding into other blogs and sites. Appearing on several radio shows, Brandon has hosted Dispatch Radio, written his first novel (The Rise of the Templar) and completed the three years Global University program in Ministerial Studies to be a pastor. To Contact Brandon email [email protected] ATTN: BRANDON

Displaying 15 Comments
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  1. Dick Durbin Quotes | The Global Dispatch says:

    […] To those who feel politicians shouldn’t define who a journalist is, I’d remind them that they likely live in one of the 49 states, like Illinois, where elected officials have already made that decision. It’s long past time for Congress to create a federal law that defines and protects journalists. – on defining a journalist, Aug. 2013 – more coverage HERE […]

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    […] has taken to Twitter to tweet his titanic outrage over California Senator Diane Feinstein’s proposed amendment to the “Media Shield Law” which seeks to limit the protection of law to only those who […]

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  12. Sen. Feinstein Seeks to Restrict Federal Definition of “Real” Journalism | Comic Book Legal Defense Fund says:

    […] For fear, apparently, of WikiLeaks, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) has backed an amendment supporting a remarkably old-fashioned and unrealistic set of restrictions on the term: […]

  13. Feinstein; an enemy of journalism - Firebrand Central says:

    […] Sunday, The Global Dispatch reported on what Feinstein defines as a “real […]

  14. TheOtherGuy says:

    REAL = MEDIA SHILL that WORKS FOR THE GOVT.

  15. Pine 4 Better Daze says:

    What the country needs is a shield law against senators like Diane Feinstein having dual
    citizenship with Israel!!…. Where does her allegiance (and the allegiance of the other
    dual-citizenship senators in the Senate) lie?
    See this VeteransToday.com report:
    ‘The Kennedys vs Israel Lobby: How Israel gained Control of American Foreign Policy’
    http://www.veteranstoday.com/2013/08/11/the-kennedys-vs-israels-lobby-how-israel-gained-control-of-american-foreign-policy
    Also see these reports—
    http://www.apfn.org/apfn/wtc_stf.htm
    http://www.realjewnews.com/?p=811
    http://www.whtt.org/newwhtt/main.php?nid=2724

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