Internet Journalists: Equal in Every Way
Last night, along with a prediction of Nancy Pelosi’s future star power that’s not getting due coverage at the moment, Matt Drudge discussed the 24-year-old Internet journalist Josh Wolf who has been in jail 57 days. Wolf was jailed on August 1 when he refused to testify or turn over unpublished video to a federal grand jury investigating a July 2005 anti-G8 demonstration. The Anti-Terrorism Task Force believes he may have information about individuals who were at the demonstration whom they want to question. If Wolf stays in the pen much longer, it might be the longest sentence served by a reporter in U.S. history…and Drudge does call him that. (“I don’t call them bloggers – Internet reporter.â€)
Matt didn’t go into details on his feelings about the specifics of the Wolf case, but he did make clear that on a matter of principle, it should be treated no differently than that of Judith Miller if evidence is being withheld on a federal probe — Internet journalists should have the same privileges, same punishments as reporters holding traditional credentials. (Considering Drudge’s own libertarian leanings, he most likely sympathizes with Josh and his cause.)
Developing…
by RegoPark - 3:21 pm
Freelance writer and book author Vanessa Leggett was released from federal custody in Houston after serving 168 days in jail for refusing to testify before a federal grand jury and turn over her research materials. A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals sitting in Houston (5th Cir.) upheld the contempt order, finding journalists do not have a right to refuse to testify before a grand jury. She has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case, but no decision has been made by the high court. (Though freed, her attorney will still press her appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court.)
That information is being linked to by Romanesko’s page over at Poynter, where newsies hang out and gripe and snipe and talk to each other via letters by big-names and small about how great the media is and nothing’s going wrong but there’s all these layoffs and downsizing and what the public needs is to be reinvigorated, not the press, and maybe there’s upheaval maybe not it’s all everyone else’s fault etc etc.
I don’t know that I’d assume Drudge naturally is on this guy’s side, Rego.
Thanks for the info. Matt would do well to at least visit a few major blogs, if nothing else, to keep abreast of what’s going on in the blogosphere. Assuming the time commitment would be realistic…In fact, he doesn’t seem to cover his local Miami-Dade news, and there have been some funky stories recently that weren’t in the Miami Herald but would be right up his alley!
I don’t assume Matt’s gung-ho all the way about defending Wolf — but he does think he needs to take the same level of responsibility as any other journalist. On that I agree with him…although I try to keep my personal opinions out of my analyses here.
*Comment deleted* (Nice try with the fake name and e-mail).
Hmmm…You have a different e-mail and IP than the original Laylalola, who’s also a member of Drudge Forum. Let me check on this…
What the ?!?!?!? That’s not me, that’s someone using my screen name! That’s a nasty Faux LayLo.
My first thought is that’s the Faux David Brock guy borrowing my screen name now. My second thought is it’s Drudge himself.
And my third thought is Drudge may well hate blogs and bloggers — what do I know? (I’ve never “related” to him on AOL or anywhere else.) I do know he hates the *word* blog.
Common sense says, however, that any position Drudge would take on the prosecution of this anarcho-Internet journalist (the guy who is the subject of Rego’s original post) — any position beyond Drudge’s statement that Internet and traditional journalists should be treated equally, that is — would have to do with the guy being a “blogger” instead of a traditional journalist.
would have *nothing* to do with him being a “blogger,” I meant to say, obviously
1 - In this court,David Brock/Faux David Brock is innocent until proven guilty.
2 - Drudge does have ambivalent feelings towards blogs and bloggers, but mostly because of his idiosyncratic fixation with the names themselves. He feels disdain for anyone who would demean themselves with such a term. But he’s certainly linked to bloggers and invited them onto the radio show.
3 - Drudge is unlikely to read a blog, let alone comment on it, nor to find a lame-ass prank like that interesting.
4 - Jeez, that really WAS a lame-ass prank — somebody find this loser a life.