In order to grant such a shield, you have to determine who is a journalist, and there is no satisfactory answer to that question.

In journalism, anything that we do as journalists that confuses the public about our ability to be independent in our reporting is obviously harmful to journalism.

It's never been an easy answer. And it now seems like the answer is changing more rapidly.

The Society of Professional Journalists in their code of ethics says that journalists should avoid conflicts of interest real or perceived. Clearly it would be a conflict of interest for anyone acting in a journalism capacity to simultaneously be serving as a public servant.

There's no qualification for how you know what you know.

When the governor himself seems to confirm the information, there are not many among us who wouldn't go with it.

For those people who already believed we weren't careful enough as journalists, this gives them more reason to believe that.

Unless there's overwhelming reason to withhold the information, the public's need to know should come first.

What's new is that entire newsrooms that once were one thing are totally different. The conversion of the traditional newsroom to the VJ newsroom is different.