Who is a Journalist?

   The latest talking point on the TV talk shows and on editorial pages is whether Julian Assange is entitled to First Amendment protection as a journalist. The debate is whether he qualifies as a journalist or is simply a thief of stolen information.
   The key issue seems to be that if the "journalist" acquired information illegally, he is subject to charges. But if he acquired it from another person and that other person stole it without help from the journalist, then freedom of the press holds. This can be a very sticky issue, and we'll hear a lot more about it in coming months, especially if Assange takes the case up the legal ladder, potentially all the way to SCOTUS.
   For now, the issue seems to be whether Assange qualifies as a journalist and therefore has more rights than an "average person" has. But whether journalists do in fact have more rights than the so-called "average person" is for me not an issue. They don't. At the same time, journalists have no fewer rights than other people.
   For me, the First Amendment speaks of "freedom of speech and of the press," so they are of a piece.
   Complicating the whole issue is whether anyone with access to the Internet automatically qualifies as a journalist and therefore has additional rights and privileges that other people don't have. But if everyone has access to the Internet and can publish anything, then we are all journalists.
   There are some laws, however, that do apply. Theft, for example, and libel. But even libel laws can be tricky when the person commented on is a public figure. Normally, to call a person a liar can be libelous. But if the allegation is true, provably true, and published without malice, then it's not libel. Similarly, the guy in the Oval Office slanders the news media when he calls them "the enemy of the people." But news media folk are in the public eye. And besides, they not only have thick skins, unlike the Chief Twit, but they also have a more powerful weapon -- access to a printing press. Or radio and television. Or the Internet. Or a pencil. Or the ability to make placards and march down the street in a protest. That, too, is guaranteed by the First Amendment.
   All of which is to say this is a big story, and we'll hear more about it as the months go by.