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The blurred distinction between journalist and blogger received further confusion during a U.S. Senate committee on Thursday. Representatives supported an amended version of the "Free Flow of Information Act" by a margin of fifteen to two. With a focus on "reporter's privilege," the bill could potentially extend bloggers the right to protect confidential source information.
The bill still does not explicitly define blogging as a distinct industry, but instead lumps the practice into an ambiguous category of professionals who engage in "the regular gathering, preparing, collecting, photographing, recording, writing, editing, or publishing or news." A suggested clarification is to protect only those who derive "financial gain or livelihood" from chronicling news. So any blogger with an ad platform is protected from revealing sources - a scary proposition for some politicians, especially during election years.
A laundry list of exceptions are attached to the bill including the following circumstances: The information source is essential to a criminal investigation; The information is connected to national security; The information involves kidnapping, death, or bodily harm.
I suspect current buzzwords like terrorism, bombing, military, etc are also excluded from protection. Read responses from the Bush administration here.