b. Why Should You Care?
We know that many of you who have to come this site are bloggers and you are saying to yourself that you are not a journalist. That you don’t want to be a journalist. A crucial ingredient to your credibility and integrity is that you are as far removed from big media as possible. You could care less what people who don’t understand you call you, and you could certainly care less if they consider you a journalist.
But you should care. This entire site is dedicated to explaining why this issue is important to YOU and why you should be making your voice heard.
If you haven’t heard our podcast, that should be your first stop. Then hunt around this site, watch our video, read what we have to say, and make up your own mind. We think in the end you will understand why you shouldn’t let others define you.
The process of making laws might seem to take place in a vacuum, but applying those laws does not. While drafting and enacting laws is far removed from our lives, the effects of those laws will not be so remote. By considering the current proposals, we can stay informed of what is happening in the marbled halls that can one day descend from its Hill and suddenly wash over our lives.
Some people consider Senator Lugar’s bill more palatable because it rights some of the flaws in the predecessor bill that Senator Chris Dodd proposed. One of the major flaws in Dodd’s bill, as Congress understood it, is that it extended the protections of the journalist shield law to anyone who distributed information to large groups of people. The net cast by Dodd’s bill caught bloggers. That worried quite a few people. The new bill “fixes” that problem and makes sure the net only catches established, large media organizations, and leaves citizen journalists out.
But if information is everyone’s domain, why should the password be held by a select few?