‘Bloggers are not journalists’

Bloggers across the country got a surprising wake up call thanks to a ruling last week by a federal judge judge in Oregon in which de declared that being a blogger does not automatically make you a journalist.

Crystal L. Cox, a blogger in Montana, was facing a defamation lawsuit after she reportedly posted negative comments about Kevin Padrick, a lawyer handling a bankruptcy case, when U.S. District Judge Marco Hernandez found that she could not rely on some First Amendment protections usually afforded to journalists in pursuit of a sort.

The Associated Press reported that “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.”

The blogger disagreed…

“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.  ”What could be more mainstream than the Internet and the top of the search engine?” she said.”

While this ruling sets the legitimacy of blogging as a serious media platform back a few steps, it is certainly not a death blow.  While the large majority may not qualify, there are plenty of serious journalists working now who use blogs as the medium for their message and we’re betting that they will be just fine if they keep their reporting up to professional standards.