Bloggers and the First Amendment: Shield Law Test

(Note: This is the second in a series of posts about this topic by Kelsey Browne & Ariel Fox) Finally, on its 17th try, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to send the proposed Federal Shield Law to the floor. This is promising, particularly because the Senate bill's definition of who would be eligible for Shield Law protection – as it currently stands – is pretty good for bloggers, and better than the House bill's definition. As we discussed previously, the House's version restricts coverage to those who receive a substantial portion of their livelihood or substantial financial gain from their……

Presented at FTC: New players help strengthen news scene

Remarks prepared for delivery Dec. 1 at Federal Trade Commission workshop on "How Will Journalism Survive the Internet Age?" Today, anyone can aspire to be a news provider, and increasingly, people and organizations are deciding that's exactly what they want to be. It's this process — many voices instead of few — that is fundamentally transforming our news ecology. The new players come in all sizes and forms, including the traditional for-profit model. I'll focus here on nonprofits and also on non-news organizations that are quickly emerging as news producers. These newcomers are not making up for all the resources……