John Phillips: Nontraditional journalists also deserve
protection  Proposed media shield law shuns nontraditional news
gatherers.   By JOHN PHILLIPS / Register columnist  John
Phillips: Nontraditional journalists also deserve protection
image0-John Phillips: Nontraditional journalists also deserve
protection  There is a debate going on right now in Washington,
D.C., over the definition of who is – or isn't – a journalist.
There can be some understandable confusion over how to define
certain professions. For example, there's the debate over
hamburger flippers. Are they on the bottom rung of the service
industry or does making fast food qualify as “manufacturing”?
But there shouldn't be a lot of debate over the definition of a
journalist.  The U.S. Senate is considering the Free Flow of
Information Act, a federal media shield law that would protect
journalists and media organizations from revealing their
confidential sources.  California's senior senator, Dianne
Feinstein, proposed an amendment, co-sponsored