Comments on: In the gig economy, who protects journalist bloggers?

By: Interesting Links, December 2009 | An Eclectic Mind

Interesting Links, December 2009 | An Eclectic Mind — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 15:22:01 +0000

[...] In the gig economy, who protects journalist bloggers? – As newspapers and other mainstream media outlets dismantle their ranks, many pundits have wondered who will be society’s new watchdog. On Chris Around the World. Thanks to @yaksierra on Twitter for sharing the link. [...]

By: December 2009 Links | Maria's Guides

December 2009 Links | Maria's Guides — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 03:21:33 +0000

By: Department of Homeland Security Subpoenas Travel Bloggers | Travel Eurasia | Europe | Asia

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 18:07:05 +0000

[...] writer/blogger (and until recently USA Today travel reporter) Chris Gray Faust’s commentary here. [...]

By: Department of Homeland Security Subpoenas Travel Bloggers | Cheap Hotels | Best Hotels | Cheap Travel

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 19:04:14 +0000

[...] writer/blogger (and until recently USA Today travel reporter) Chris Gray Faust’s commentary here. [...]

By: Bloggers Tread Treacherous Legal Water — Flights From Hell

Bloggers Tread Treacherous Legal Water — Flights From Hell — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 01:27:41 +0000

[...] records. Chris Gray Faust adeptly addressed these concerns in her blog (Chris Around The World): In the gig economy, who protects journalist bloggers? One of the questions she asks is whether a legal defense fund should be established for [...]

By: summerof67

summerof67 — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 14:30:24 +0000

A program that would include the Poynter, ASJA, SPJ and the ACLU would be the way to go – a “public defender” program, IMHO. Someone should post it to Bob Steele or Roy Peter Clark at Poynter, who would most likely be able to get something going. Thanks.

By: summerof67

summerof67 — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 14:25:32 +0000

Kat – great idea, though there are many bloggers out there who are not paid and who can barely afford their Internet connections, let along the cost of an insurance policy. Just ask Arianna Huffington. Better to have a public defender program that is financed by MSM or channeled through the ACLU. It would probably not be able to cover all journalists all the time, but it would be able to handle enough cases the set precedents. It would be a start at least. Thanks.

By: Mary Mitchell

Mary Mitchell — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 13:22:46 +0000

Add me to those supporting Elliott. and company I worked for Travel Weekly as a freelancer for 14 years and as a general freelancer for longer–but with no legal problems. I was lucky.

Some of the professional writers groups used to offer liability insurance. One thing’s for certain, any writer needs an umbrella insurance policy. That’s the easy part. The hard part is shelling out money for legal fees.

These kinds of issues seem to separate the pros and the amateurs, but a lawsuit can happen to anyone.

By: Skipperrote

Skipperrote — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 17:48:52 +0000

I’m a retired freelancer who left journalism early enough to avoid all these dilemmas cited by the emails on this blog. First, the narrow-visioned folks who say that travel writers support the two guys who received TSA supoenae need to get over themselves. The basic fear is that the feds, and soon after that, the state and local authorities will be grabbing supoenae to harrass and censor all kinds of news/commentary publication, not just writings about cute hotels and narrow airline seats. In one sense, the news media (including freelancers) has itself to blame for this dilemma because major news outlets, print, audio, video, and online, love to hyperize terror or anything that hints of it. Like today’s story of a Christmas ornament causing a passenger jet to be diverted. The reading public gets scared and the bureaucrats under Napolitano’s all-knowing view issue idea after wacky idea after wacky idea. They haven’t ordered undies taken off yet, but give them time. The media, especially the video types, need to tone down their reporting styles, cease their hyperventilating and opinionating about things over which they know little. Why a CNN fill-in anchor would interview a Time national security reporter as the sole source to comment on the Yemen-Detroit bomb failure escapes me, but journalists are not sources by themselves. But there I go.
The main point here is how do freelancers cover themselves against government supoenae and other legal attacks. It would seem to me that not only Poynter, but other journalistic organizations should form buying pools through which non-employed (aka freelance) journalists could buy legal insurance, which would likely be very expensive. There must be standards that will eliminate many self-styled citizen journalists, many of who merely steal others’ work and put it forth as their own in the form of both reported stories and commentaries. There has been talk among professional journalists lately of how such folk act as filters for the general public; such has been the case for more than a hundred years, and so it should be. Every person with a digital camera and a laptop computer with access to a website should not be construed as a ‘journalist’.
The current situation, with its loss of thousands of jobs and media outlets, and dimiishing access to free media for the public, portends a blackening future. The TSA is merely the first, it will be accompanied by other government bodies that will do their best to clamp controls and censorship over the traditionally strong American First Amendment. There needs to be a new formula for future American journalism and its participants, and so called citizen journalism, IMHO, is not the best path to that new career path. Thanks for reading.

By: Virginia Postrel

Virginia Postrel — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 00:47:03 +0000

We need an nonprofit that can coordinate pro bono legal representation for people in these situations. I’m sure there are plenty of lawyers who would find these cases interesting and worth some of their pro bono time.