Are We Journalists or Gadflies?

Margaret Romao Toigo

In his article in the February 2 edition of The Christian Science Monitor, correspondent Randy Dotinga asks the question, "Are bloggers journalists? Do they deserve press protections?"

Well, are we? Do we? Does the First Amendment apply to us bloggers as "the press," or are we merely citizens exercising our freedom of speech and expression? Are we commentators, analysts and pundits or just opinionated rebels, gadflies and malcontents posessed of cyber-soapboxes? Are we indeed journalists, or just another manifestation of the "entertainment masquerading as news" trend?

Blog Content: Quality or Quantity?

Some bloggers post new articles sporadically and infrequently while others bloggers post one to several new articles every day. Some blog readers complain about irregularly updated, stale blog content and others complain about the quality of blogs which appear to be populated with large quantities of whatever random esoteric thoughts and/or speeen ventings happened to pop into the bloggers' heads.

Naturally, the frequency of blog updates often depends upon pragmatic factors like the efficiency of bloggers' researching, writing and proofreading skills (and whether or not they wish to bother with such formalities), how much time they have to devote to blogging -- which sometimes depends upon whether their blogs are personal hobbies or commercial ventures -- and of course, whatever is currently happening in the world.

Practical matters aside, how often should a blog be updated with new content, weekly, daily, hourly? There appears to be no set rule other than how the frequency of updates might affect web site traffic. Is it better to update as frequently as possible, even if quality might be sacrificed? Or is quality content more important than fresh content?

These ethical and legal questions are not simply fodder for academic specualtion and discussion. On January 4, 2005, Apple Computer filed a lawsuit against unnamed individuals who revealed inside information about forthcoming Mac products. Also named in the suit was the Mac enthusiasts' site, Think Secret, which helped to publish articles written by a 19-year-old blogger who leaked information about new products weeks before Apple unveiled them to the public. The suit, filed in the Superior Court of Santa Clara County, California, seeks to identify who is leaking information and to get an injunction preventing further release of trade secrets. Apple claims that the information posted on Think Secret could only have been obtained by someone who had signed a confidentiality agreement and that Think Secret induced those individuals to breach their confidentiality agreements.

Whether Apple Computer's lawsuit is ultimately about a blogger's First Amendment Rights or a business protecting its trade secrets is a matter for the courts to decide once all of the facts and evidence have been examined. However, in the meantime, the fact that such a suit was filed demonstrates that bloggers have become major players with widepread influence over politics, entertainment, business, journalism, etc. -- just to name a few areas. Remember, it was Power Line blog which first implied that the documents shown by Dan Rather on a 60 Minutes segment about President Bush's National Guard service were forgeries. More than 500 web sites linked to Power Line's story and the mainstream media followed up, which led to an investigation and the subsequent ousting of four CBS News employees who played a role in preparing and reporting that blogger-debunked story.

We bloggers are quite adept at expressing our claims of and demands for all manner of civil, human and other rights. And those skills are just one of the reasons why we have become such a force not only in the world of journalism but also in the ongoing fight against tyranny -- whose worst enemy is the free flow of information.

If bloggers are indeed journalists, entitled to the same legal rights and protections as journalists, such as the "shield" laws that protect reporters from revealing their sources, aren't we also obliged to verify our facts before posting our blog articles and to publish corrections or retractions if we later learn that we were wrong? Shouldn't we subscribe to journalistic ethics with regard to protecting the identities of our sources and disclosing our conflicts of interest? Is it unethical for a blogger to accept money to promote or endorse commercial products or political ideas and policies?

Technically, our rights are unemcumbered by definition, but doesn't our power come with a certain amount of responsibility?