Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!security!genrad!decvax!cca!dee
From: dee@cca.UUCP (Donald Eastlake)
Newsgroups: net.misc
Subject: Re: are we a member of the press
Message-ID: <6247@cca.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 7-Dec-83 15:16:44 EST
Article-I.D.: cca.6247
Posted: Wed Dec  7 15:16:44 1983
Date-Received: Fri, 9-Dec-83 03:50:42 EST
References: ihuxf.1662
Lines: 23

I insist that the boundary between "The Press" and not-"The Press" is
inherently a blurr in any society with freedom of the press.  You can
tell Doctors (in the medical sense) from non-Doctors by whether they are
licensed by the state and you can tell The Press that way in some
countries.  While there are some things like this in the USA (I think to
get a Massachusetts "News Photog" automobile license plate, which tends
to let you through fire/police lines, you have to be a full time
photogrpaher working for a daily publication or a broadcast station)
they are relatively rare.

The original query involved a legal questions and my reply was to
indicate that I did not think there was a sharply defined group
that was The Press with a markedly different legal status such that
the question could be answered by some mystic decision as to whether
usenet was part of "The Press" or part of not-"The Press".

My use of amateur radio was poor.  Consider it to have been replaced by
low power radio broadcasting via power line conduction or, if that is
illegal these days, by standing on a soap box and talking to the passing
crowd or using a physical bulletin board with the same size of audience.

	+	Donald E. Eastlake, III
	ARPA:	dee@CCA-UNIX		usenet:	{decvax,linus}!cca!dee