Blogging From Prison?

It depends on which article you read. Josh Wolf, 24, is considered either a blogger or a journalist. He does have a blog at Josh Wolf.net. The URL indicates that it is a blog. In any event:

SAN FRANCISCO--A freelance journalist and blogger was jailed on Tuesday after refusing to turn over video he took at an anticapitalist protest here last summer and after refusing to testify before a grand jury looking into accusations that crimes were committed at the protest.

Earlier this year, federal prosecutors subpoenaed Wolf to testify before a grand jury and turn over video from the demonstration, held in the Mission District on July 8, 2005. The protest, tied to a Group of 8 meeting of world economic leaders in Scotland, ended in a clash between demonstrators and the San Francisco police, with one officer sustaining a fractured skull.

Wolf, who posted some of the edited video on his Web site, www.joshwolf.net, and sold some of it to local television stations, met with investigators, who wanted to see the raw video.(Click here for more on his role in the video blogging world.) But Wolf refused to hand over the tapes, arguing that he had the right as a journalist to shield his sources.

OPINIONS?

I, of course, have mine and that is this: we in the New Media Blogosphere have to grapple, as do the courts, with the proper placement of blogs and bloggers in the overall scope of media itself. Are we bloggers only? Are we journalists? Are we shills for various corporations? We are all of that and more.

After looking at Wolf's blog and peeking around (and noticing that his mommy, fer Christ's sake, is blogging for him now!), he quantifies and places himself in the category of journalist though he took his degree in psychology from SFSU. He does have some background in journalism having worked, as he writes, for his high school paper, UCSB's Daily Nexus and then at the Santa Barbara Independent. He does not have, however, any experience with what one would normally call the Mainstream Media -- and likely has gone out of his way to not do so.

But here's where the lines begin to merge and the fog of gray, in my opinion, began to take hold within his fevered brain. He saw himself as part of the New Media and under that fell blogging. The fact pattern is that he posted videos of a 2005 anti-capitalist protest on his blog. His video(s) likely contained images of illegal activities during said protest.

My guess is that he features himself not quite under the guise of Mainstream Media and, further, features himself oblivious to some forms of law both because of his status as a blogger and a journalist. Though Fornicalia has what is considered to be a state "shield law" from various contempt citations, no such law exists on the federal level.

And that is where Mr. Wolf now sits: under federal authority.

Apparently Mr. Wolf is unaware of the difference.

Let's say I am a blogger. Further, let's say I am precisely Mr. Bloviating Zeppelin and have taken the same video of the same event and posted it on my blog. Let's say that one day I am contacted by authorities who want to sneak a peek at my raw footage. Would I say yes? Would I say no? Would I magically consider myself a "journalist" and take my stand?

Folks: I'm no journalist. I'm just a fat guy with a free account in Blogger who enjoys seeing my own words in print. But I'm also sufficiently sagacious to know when to comply with a reasonable request, for good reasons, from my local authorities.

When we as bloggers enter the atmosphere of real journalism and we through all appearances attempt to portray ourselves as journalists then I shall assume that there is a leaning towards the consequences of our actions to be "journalist-like."

To turn a current phrase to ol' Josh: "Yo dude; what were you thinking?"

BZ