Ohio’s “concealed carry” gun law has raised interesting questions- who is a journalist?
In case you hadn’t heard, a guns-rights group (Ohioans for Concealed Carry) tried to exercise an exception and get the list of people in Clermont County applying for the right to carry a concealed weapon, information available only to journalists under the law. The group, citing their website and group newsletter, asserts they are journalists under the law (or the law’s “journalist” requirement is too vague to enforce).
I certainly don’t think the group qualifies as a journalist, but where do you draw the line? At the outset, I think the name of gun permit applicants should be public information and the distinction to make the material available only to journalists may be too vague to enforce. But the question remains “who is a journalist?”
Here’s my attempt at a confusing issue: In my mind, a blogger is a journalist as long as objectivity is an important operating principle and the publication is open to the broad community. The distinction is the label on the page: I know when I read the op-ed page, I am reading someone's personal opinion, but while reading page 1, Metro, I am expecting a higher standard. When I am reading a magazine, there may be casualness or breeziness to the material, but it’s not reflecting a specific agenda. Bloggers, particularly those presenters of a mix of facts and personal opinions, are at different points on the continuum, but at least on the continuum. Bloggers may be journalists or they may just be interesting and worthwhile writers who periodically serve as a conduit for very important information.
However, the "journalist vs. blogger" distinction is less important than the "reporter vs. promoter" distinction. Journalists, and their 21st century blogger brethren, put material out to the public in an open-ended fashion. They publish - the entire point is to present information. If a blogger is funded by a discrete and identifiable group or interest, the blogger sacrifices any claim for independence and objectivity. That’s not journalism (they’re called press releases). A news release or writer from an organization or political group is not entitled to the same treatment as promoting the agenda, not information, is the goal.
That’s not even on the same continuum.