Written by: Beck

Just heard this teaser on FoxNews: "Bloggers: are they journalists, and do they deserve the same first amendment protections as professional journalists?"

This, of course, is a reference to the first amendment guarantee of a free press. My answer: it doesn't matter--the first amendment covers more freedoms than just the press. What I write here is protected under free speech. What does it frigging matter if I'm a "journalist"?

After all, despite the impression often given by, well, journalists, the first amendment does not protect journalists from giving up their sources. They just refuse to give up their sources on principle, and are happy to risk a contempt of court citation, as it will just make martyrs of them and increase their reputation within the halls of professional journalism.

So what protections, exactly, does the first amendment grant to journalists that aren't granted to people whose one deficit is their failure to own a printing press?

I have a declaration to make

If any government entity, be it the FEC, the FCC, or any of the other many and varied bureaucratic monstrosities trying to run this country, attempts to curtail the rights of bloggers without comparably curtailing the equivalent rights of professional journalists, I will openly and proudly defy such infringement on my constitutional freedoms.

Or, for those who prefer things to be more succinct: bring it on you McCain-Feingold worshipping shitheads.