Paying attention to the shield law’s critics
Journalists shouldn’t blindly support the shield law without taking in the whole picture.
When a Senate committee this month approved the “Free Flow of Information Act of 2013,” applause was heard from scores of media shield law supporters, from the Newspaper Association of America to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. To them, the news came as a relief after revelations the feds had secretly seized Associated Press phone records and labeled a Fox News reporter a criminal “co-conspirator” as an excuse to get his emails. So perhaps it isn’t surprising that the AP story on the bill and newspaper coverage generally was unburdened by complexity: Long-overdue shield law advances; journalists to protect confidential sources and information. Yet magazine websites told a different story, one of a flawed law with holes that worry “even some supporters.” This raises a question: Shouldn’t the critics get more attention in the mainstream coverage?
Read the full post at Columbia Journalism Review
Related Stories

RJI in the news
Local news isn’t dead, we just need to stop killing it
June 29, 2016

MediaShift Podcast
MediaShift Podcast 226: Google fights ad boycott in U.K.; Alt-right sites in turmoil
March 24, 2017

Building revenue on e-Readers remains a challenge
April 11, 2010

RJI in the news
What mobile and social media trends mean for newspapers
May 15, 2015

NAA MediaXchange 2013: The real Web 2.0
April 20, 2013
