I just found an article about Texas passing a shield law that could cover some bloggers. The article is here: http://www.burntorangereport.com/diary/8336/texas-sheild-law-passes-opportunity-open-for-substantial-blogs.
A shield law allows journalists to not name their sources. Bloggers are not covered by the shield law, because they are often not seen as journalists. Bloggers disagree. They see themselves as journalists, and therefore, believe they should be covered by the shield law. In Texas, bloggers might get their way.
According to Texas House bill 670, a journalist is: "...a person, including a parent, subsidiary, division, or affiliate of a person, who for a substantial portion of the person's livelihood or for substantial financial gain, gathers, compiles, prepares, collects, photographs, records, writes, edits, reports, investigates, processes, or publishes news or information that is disseminated by a news medium or communication service provider..."
Under that definition of a journalist, a blogger could be considered a journalist if he of she reports information for a living. If a blogger is seen as a journalist under Texan law, then he or she is protected by the shield law.
Bloggers should get any legal protection professional journalists do, because they are performing the same function in society. Both are informing the public.
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