Law bloggers are journalists

That seems to be the consensus on the blogosphere, at least as to Howard Bashman and his How Appealing blog.

The whole discussion arose out of Bashman’s publishing a 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on a case filed by a Sept. 11 detainee. Turns out the case was filed under seal because of national security issues. The Court mistakenly made the decision public. A court clerk called Bashman asking him to take the discussion down from his blog. Bashman declined arguing as a journalist and member of the media, he needed to keep a post up which thousands had already seen, emailed to others, and blogged about.

Regardless of what folks think about Bashman’s refusal, whether as a journalist or officer of the court, there’s not much argument that as a law blogger, folks believe Bashman is a journalist.

• Matthew Felling at CBS’ Public Eye: As far as this writer is concerned, Bashman fits the bill.
• Law Professor Daniel Solove at Concurring Opinions: I believe that anybody can be a journalist — a journalist is what a journalist does. In other words, being associated with a mainstream media entity doesn’t determine who is a journalist and who is not. One doesn’t need to be part of any organization to report information to the public.
• Law Professor Eric Goldman, commenting at Concurring Opinions: If we were building the law from scratch today, there is no way we would try to “privilege” journalists from other types of content publishers and disseminators. That distinction is simply too incoherent in an era where everyone has equal access to an infinite audience.
• Mark Obbie at LawBeat of The Carnegie Legal Reporting Program at Syracuse University: Bashman’s backbone is even more admirable than the average journalist’s — if put in a similar position — because Bashman’s day job depends on the good graces of appellate courts. When the government overreaches to keep the public’s business secret, journalists must stand up and be counted. That’s easier when the worst they can do is be mad at you. Bashman did more.
• The Blog of the Legal Times: Bashman then took the classic stance of journalists in opposition to government secrecy: “In my role as a member of the news media, I determined that it would be inappropriate to take down my posting of the decision based on a general claim that the opinion, issued earlier in the day to the public over the internet, referred to information contained in an appendix whose contents remained under seal.”

Not much question either following Wikipedia’s definition of a journalist:

A journalist is a person who practices journalism, the gathering and dissemination of information about current events, trends, issues and people.

As an aside, today I’m unable to pull up Bashman’s posts on the subject (or any of his posts after 10/8/07) so not certain what is transpiring.