You Might Be A Journalist If...

... the House Judiciary Committee says you are, not The Media, whoever the f they are nowadays. From the Washington Post:

Many media organizations have favored a narrow law on the theory that a federal shield law could garner sufficient support only if it applied a limited group of people. The Senate bills of the past several years reflected that view, defining a "journalist" as a person who "for financial gain or livelihood" is engaged in newsgathering or news reporting "as a salaried employee of or independent contractor" for one of several specific types of media organizations or another "professional medium or agency." To qualify as a journalist, the organization for which the work is being done must have the "processing and researching of news or information intended for dissemination to the public" as one of its "regular functions."

Although it remains to be seen how the Free Flow of Information Act of 2007 will fare in Congress, the sponsors of this bill rightly view journalism as an endeavor that belongs to all of us.