this is only because i couldn't find any good porn

This may seem questionable on the surface, but there should be a day when it's socially acceptable to sit on the floor and throw a temper tantrum with as much energy as you can muster.

My Dell Mini, after having taken it apart down to removing the system board to get to the LCD wires, has in fact a cracked screen. I do not know how. I do not know why. But it is cracked, and after putting it back together in its component parts and finding two extra screws left over (IDEK), I sat down to stare at it, and think, I need a temper tantrum. Instead, I verified this wasn't repairable, then made it worse to relieve my feelings, then decided it was worth it for the sheer joy of disassembly and reassembly. Well, except I need a new screen, and I just don't feel motivated to find one tonight.

Anyway.

How to Win Friends and Influence People Like Police to Raid Bloggers

Answer is be Steve Jobs, who has successfully done what I thought only people who ran small, thriving regimes in South America managed; he used the government to retaliate against the free press. Or, Jason Chen of Gizmodo got raided, his computers and personal information confiscated, because he released information on the new iPhone.

Lacking a sophisticated understanding of the legal statutes that allegedly buying a phone lost by an employee and found by someone else cover, we'll skipped poisoned fruit to the part of the debate that actually interests me, which is the current and deeply fascinating defense that a tech blogger isn't a journalist, so they cannot have the protections offered journalists.

I personally find this fascinating. By that I mean, wtf'ing and kinda hilariously unsettling at the same time. The use and abuse of the blogosphere and self-published content is still radical, granted, and I'm not saying Katie's Kake Blog (I made that up, I think?) is a competitive source of reliable information on par with the New York Times (because I can't prove it), but when casually googling for what constitutes a journalist entitled to the protection of the free press, I was unsurprised to note how many people believed a prestigious journalism school would be a requirement, and possibly employment at some established non-internet media center. As these internetz bloggers are like, not reliable and evil and you know, sometimes do it for free or burrito coupons or something.

This isn't to say journalism isn't a career, a skill, an art, and should at its best be objective, well-researched, and adhere to a professional standard; it's because the debate isn't about about any of those things. It's about the icky internet and it's crazy free content people going out there like they know how to observe, ask questions, and frame a relevant report. It's also a really good way to take some kind of tentative control of a source of information that answers to no one but itself and the people who read it. Engadget is not CNET is not Associated Press is not TMZ is not Perez is not Gawker; if you say some of these are not like the other, I'd like a definition as to what constitutes real reporting of news, because I was trying to do it and came to a conclusion I'm not entirely comfortable with on what they mean when they say "journalist".

Ted Coppel is not Perez Hilton, nor am I arguing Diane Sawyer can be replaced with Random Female Blogger A; however, the dangers inherent in depending on single large media news and it's affiliates isn't exactly subtle here, and let me invoke the name Murdoch as warning, reminder, and convincing argument to get a foil hat and hide in a Faraday cage.

If a standard must be set to earn the right to report and earn the protections that come with being a journalist, then Jason Chen might be a really good way to make a statement and maybe a warning to bloggers who won't shut up when told to.

I'm not making an argument that all blogs are CNN and your LJ/DW/blog is on par with MSNBC--I'm saying, when I read people talking about what constitutes a real journalist, they're not talking about reliability, truthfulness, objectivity, professionalism, or the ability to string words together in a way that generally aligns with current trends in grammar and spelling. They're saying if they aren't given the stamp of approval by a major media corporation, they aren't real.

And on a sidenote?

This week, Chen's house was raided by officers from California's Rapid Enforcement Allied Computer Team (REACT), a special task force of police officers and federal agents created to combat computer-related crimes -- and which just happens to have Apple on its steering committee. The cops took all of Chen's computer equipment. - link

I'm incredibly comforted when publicly traded major corporations are deeply involved with the police force. That can't possibly go wrong.

Comments

[wealhtheow]

This question of who gets to recieve protections as a journalist reminds me of the "benefit of clergy" in ye olde England. Back in the day, it was assumed that anyone who could read was a cleric, and as part of the church they were given much lighter sentences--not hanged for murder, that sort of thing. But as literacy rose, more and more non-clerics could prove that they could read, and therefore *they* also recieved the "benefit of clergy." It was finally abolished in 1827.

It seems like we're at a similar point in history. Reporting and investigating is now open to far more people than a few trained people with tons of money backing them. The deliniation between "journalist" and "non-journalist" can no longer be "those report news." And it's not like the "real" reporters are all that distinguishable from the "faux" reporting bloggers: blogs have been the first to report a bunch of news, and the "real" reporters are just as mired in celebrity culture and shady ethics.