Informed Speculation

Cliff Kincaid has the details on the very confusing messages coming from Capitol Hill regarding the Media Shield Law and bloggers. The whole issue of who is or isn’t a journalist is more than rhetorical, and it goes beyond this one bill: right here in my own backyard, many bloggers were turned away from covering the Ku Klux Klan rally in support of Proposition 2 a few weeks ago because they weren’t considered ‘journalists’.

It’s a bad thing when the government defines acceptable sources of information, and you don’t have to be a blogger to be nervous about it…

UPDATE 8:29 a.m.: George Will has more on the subject; he links such efforts to the liberal love of big government, then concludes with this shot across the bow:

…[L]iberals’ abhorrence of political money is selective. Roll Call, the Capitol Hill newspaper, recently reported that when Democratic senators met in a Capitol room near the Senate floor to plan strategy, their leader, Harry Reid, permitted Stephen Bing to attend. In 2004, Bing, 40, gave more than $14 million of his inherited wealth to Democratic candidates and liberal groups supporting them.

Was there any appearance of impropriety—say, cash purchasing access? Gosh, no, said Democrats to Roll Call: “Reid’s aides and other Senate Democrats said there is nothing wrong with such a big donor attending meetings otherwise open to only senators and a few top aides, because Bing is not a lobbyist and is not seeking any favors from Democrats.” Sen. Barbara Boxer explained that Bing is “just really interested in making this country better.” Oh, well, in that case…