At issue is that the government could soon decide who is a journalist and who is not. Feinstein introduced an amendment that defines a “covered journalist” as someone who gathers and reports news for “an entity or service that disseminates news and information.” The definition includes freelancers, part-timers and student journalists, and it permits a judge to go further and extend the protections to any “legitimate news-gathering activities.” In the definition introduced in Feinstein’s amendment, somebody writing for a small town paper with a circulation of 30 would receive First Amendment protections, but Steve Quayle, John Stadtmiller, Jeff Rense, Alex Jones, Michael Edwards, George Noory and Matt Drudge would not be considered journalists; and, therefore, the First Amendment would not apply to the group of aforementioned newsmen. But Wolf Blitzer and Anderson Cooper, who according former CNN award-winning journalist, Amber Lyon, stated that the CIA bribes reporters at CNN to cover some stories while not covering others, presumably would. Read more trueactivist/congress-moves-to-outlaw-alternative-media/
Posted on: Thu, 26 Sep 2013 13:58:46 +0000