Cristy Li

Sen Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) Wants to Limit Who Can Be a Journalist
Trigga Nometry/Twitter

(Breitbart) The most recent Congressional threat to a Free Press in the United States comes from the Senate Democrat-Progressive/Socialist Majority Judiciary Committee, which approved today 15-3 a measure that would redefine “Journalist” clearing the way for approval of the legislation.

Under the proposed legislation a “Journalist” would now be defined as an employee, independent contractor or agent of an entity that disseminates news or information–the individual would have been employed for 1 year within the last 20 or 3 months within the last 5 years; It would apply to ‘student journalists’ or someone with a considerable amount of freelance work in the last 5 years. A federal judge would also have the authority to declare one a ‘covered journalist’ who would be granted privileges of the new proposed law.

(Hmm..I wonder if Benjamin Franklin and James Madison could have called themselves journalists under such a broad definition? I digress)

“I think journalism has a certain tradecraft. Its a profession. I recognize that everyone can think they’re a journalist,” said Sen Dianne Feinstein.

The language incorporated into the proposed legislation is raising concerns from First Amendment advocates because it seems to have deliberately left out Bloggers and other non-traditional forms of journalism that have proliferated in recent years thanks to the Internet writes The Western Center for Journalism.

“Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.” President Harry S. Truman

Related: The Founding Fathers on a Free Press –Pittsblog