Daily Archives: July 26, 2013

Congress and the Justice Dept’s Dangerous Attempts to Define “Journalist” Threaten to Exclude Bloggers

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Lawmakers in Washington are again weighing in on who should and should not qualify as a journalist—and the outcome looks pretty grim for bloggers, freelancers, and other non-salaried journalists.

On July 12, the Justice Department released its new guidelines on investigations involving the news media in the wake of the fallout from the leak scandals involving the monitoring of AP and Fox News reporters. While the guidelines certainly provide much-needed protections for establishment journalists, as independent journalist Marcy Wheeler explained, the DOJ’s interpretation of who is a “member[] of the news media” is dramatically narrower than the definition provided in the Privacy Protection Act and effectively excludes bloggers and freelancers from protection. This limiting definition is causing alarm among bloggers like Glenn Reynolds on the right as well.

While the DOJ’s effort to limit the scope of who can be recognized as a journalist is problematic, it doesn’t have teeth. Guidelines are, well, guidelines. But the report is part of a broader legislative effort in Washington to simultaneously offer protection for the press while narrowing the scope of who is afforded it. Importantly, Congress introduced federal shield bills in May—both ironically named the “Free Flow of Information Act of 2013”—that arguably would exclude bloggers, freelancers, and other non-salaried journalists from protection because they are not included within the bills’ narrow definition of who qualifies as a journalist.

If these bills—support for which the White House reaffirmed in its DOJ report—pass without change, Congress effectively will create two tiers of journalists: the institutional press licensed by the government, and everyone else. That’s a pretty flimsy shield if what we are really trying to protect is the free flow of information.

Read more at the Electronic Frontier Foundation

Project Appleseed coming to Flagstaff shooting range

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Project Appleseed will be holding a clinic at the Northern Arizona Shooting Range in Flagstaff on August 24th and 25th at 8:30 am each day. The clinic will focus on rifle marksmanship skill.

The skill will include the six steps to firing a shot, natural point of aim, sling use and other skills in firing rifles. They also discuss the history of the beginning of the American War for Independence and the heritage of the nation.

The clinic costs $80 per man, $40 for each woman and under $20 for people under 18. Active duty military, law enforcement officers and elected offficials are free. The $7 range fee is not included and must be paid by all on entry. Your own rifles and ammunition are required. You can find more information at their web site.

Project Appleseed, according to their web site,

…is an activity of The Revolutionary War Veterans Association, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, dedicated to teaching every American our shared heritage and history as well as traditional rifle marksmanship skills. Our volunteer instructors travel across the country teaching those who attend about the difficult choices, the heroic actions, and the sacrifices that the Founders made on behalf of modern Americans, all of whom are their posterity.

“Our rifle marksmanship program complements our history and heritage. We teach the traditional American marksmanship skills,” their web site states.

The Northern Arizona Shooting Range is located on USFS Road 128A 3.8 miles past the junction of USFS Roads 82 and 128. It is east of Flagstaff and south of the Winona exit #211 on I-40. (Map and directions)