To bloggers: do you have to cough up your anonymous sources when you get a subpoena?

I just spoke with Barbara Fullerton who is in the PhD program at the University of North Texas in Denton, TX.  She is writing an article on the effect the Free Flow of Information Act (federal shield law) proposed by Rep. Mike Pence would have on bloggers.  Feel free to send her your thoughts at [email protected].

If you have a blog, do you consider yourself a journalist or a blogger? That is, if you use an anonymous source (and don't we all?), and you get a subpoena to reveal your source, are you protected as a blogger?  Can you claim protection as a journalist?  Can and should "journalist" be defined?

Good news for bloggers as far as campaign finance law - the Federal Election Commission just unanimously said that the Fired Up! network of blogs qualifies for the press exception to federal finance law. More at Media Law blog by Robert Ambrogi, Nov 17 post.

I mentioned to Barbara that I began my blog with the question of whether public libraries are exposed to lawsuits when they allow public comment as part of the library blog.  I think libraries should think long and hard before they enable comments.  A censored commentator could try to claim that the blog is like the library's bulletin board or giveaway table. If so, the library cannot remove a comment based on its content or viewpoint without triggering a First Amendment problem - quite possible at the near-impossible-to-meet legal standard of strict scrutiny.

Since I didn't have actual readers back in the ancient times when I wrote my first blog entry, (April 2004), Barbara suggested I bring it back up for debate.  (Notable exception - Infozo the Moron Librarian found me back at my very first post - impressive).

One possible workaround - keep official library blogs as one-way communication.  Let the Friends group sponsor a blog that allows library user comments.  Private groups can generally remove comments without triggering First Amendment liability.

Update: I see that Eugene Volokh is working on an article about whether bloggers should be entitled to various protections that mainstream media writers get ... see discussion at The Volokh Conspiracy Nov 17