Federal judge rules that a blogger is not a journalist

And sometimes they're not, and sometimes they are. But the judge's standard for determining whether a blogger is a journalist is bizarre and antiquated.  From AP:

The judge ruled that Cox was not protected by Oregon's shield law from having to produce sources, saying even though Cox defines herself as media, she was not affiliated with any mainstream outlet. He added that the shield law does not apply to civil actions for defamation.

Hernandez said Cox was not a journalist because she offered no professional qualifications as a journalist or legitimate news outlet. She had no journalism education, credentials or affiliation with a recognized news outlet, proof of adhering to journalistic standards such as editing or checking her facts, evidence she produced an independent product or evidence she ever tried to get both sides of the story.

I'm not affiliated with a mainstream outlet, I don't have a journalism education, as for editing, sure, I edit my posts myself (I suspect the judge meant "having editors"), and I do check facts and believe in journalistic standards such as keeping the confidence of sources, protecting off the record conversations, etc. By this judge's standard, I'm 50-50 on whether I'm a journalist (even though the Economist didn't seem to mind when I wrote for them over ten years ago).

The judge is wrong and right. You do need some kind of standard for determining whether a blogger is a journalist, otherwise anyone kid who creates a Web site can claim he's a journalist, and something about that bothers me. But all the judge does is repeat the old definition of what makes a journalist, something that may not apply 100% in a new more technology heavy age (I'm surprised the judge didn't add "uses a typewriter" to the list).

I do get a chuckle out of the judge saying that real journalists have editors. The real journalists at AP couldn't even get their blog terminology right:

Cox said she considered herself a journalist, producing more than 400 blogs over the past five years, with a proprietary technique to get her postings on the top of search engines where they get the most notice.

Unless the woman is some kind of Energizer Bunny of blogging, she didn't produce "400 blogs." She wrote "400 blog posts" on her blog over five years. There's a difference. AMERICAblog is a blog, Daily Kos is a blog, and FireDogLake is a blog. Together, they are 3 blogs. But each site has tens of thousands of blog posts on it.

Calling a blog post a "blog" is a mistake I've heard a lot, and it rankles me. It's also rather funny that the Associated Press, which has "editors," is using blog terminology incorrectly in an article about how bloggers aren't journalists because they don't have the same editing standards, and commitment to accuracy, as "real" journalists. Ha!

Putting that aside for a moment, my dad is a smart man. But I don't want him making Internet policy. At this point in history, one thing doesn't improve with age - your understanding of technology. Not that judges are incapable of learning new issue areas, but I wonder whether we shouldn't have Internet courts, or some kind of specialty "something" created, to handle these kind of issues that are too complicated, and too organic, for someone not well steeped in them.  I don't know that the judge is a borderline luddite, but I have a feeling he might be.

Time to get back to my Selectric.