Blogger Bill Heard in House Judiciary Committee Today

Rep. Aaron Pena had his "blogger bill" - HB 4237 - heard in the Texas House Committee on Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence today. Two outstanding Texas progressive bloggers testified in favor of the bill - Vince Leibowitz of Capitol Annex and Karl Thomas Musselman of Burnt Orange Report. Rep. Pena did a great job laying it out and closing it. I live tweeted it and I summarize that below:

Blogger bill being heard in House Judiciary Committee today. @CapitolAnnex there to testify & is tweeting. Live feed here: http://tr.im/jROe Pena doing a great job talking about bloggers in the House Judiciary Committee. He gets it. @aaronpena laying out HB 4237 - the blogger bill - right now. @capitolannex and @karltm will testify. My testimony is written (@capitolannex submitted for me) & is in favor. @aaronpena bill is about privileged matters clause - extends it to bloggers. Makes it inclusive of modern technology (note: modernization argument seemed to resonate with committee) @capitolannex is testifying now in favor of HB 4237. Someone on committee said, "we are supposed to give this guy a hard time, right?" (note: I think it is because there is a Rep. Leibowitz on the committee) @capitolannex is testifying on behalf of the Texas Progressive Alliance in favor of HB 4237-revise statute to keep up with modern technology @karltm testifying now in favor of HB 4237 - Owner of Burnt Orange Report @karltm makes point that former bloggers have moved to work in traditional media - Eileen Smith with TX Monthly, who has own blog - In the Pink Texas A good question for @karltm - how are traditional media people like Burka who also blog protected? They are protected because their blog is tied to traditional media (note: good question - committee is thinking about the bigger picture and nuances) @karltm Wow! KT knows his stuff. Gives examples of semi-traditional media blogs who might be unprotected (note - so impressed with both KT and Vince - did a great job answering questions!) @karltm gives example of Charlie with Pink Dome who was unprotected, went to traditional media (protected), now back to blogging on Pink Dome (unprotected) @karltm gives good example of how Eileen Smith's TX Monthly blog points to her private ITPT blog. @karltm gets compliment on Burnt Orange Report from judiciary committee! Rock! Special compliment on BOR speaker race blogging. @karltm getting good question - should twitter, texts, emails be protected? I have same question. Live tweeting so similar to live blogging. @karltm and @capitolannex both make point that HB 4237 will eliminate frivolous lawsuits - ahh, torte reform working FOR us Good point being made by committee: traditional media folding, bloggers wave of future - need protections @karltm makes good point that bloggers do not revel in folding of traditional media-regular journalists likely to go to independent blogging. @aaronpena says don't get distracted by any of baggage bloggers picked up over years - me: like us blogging in our pajamas? :) @aaronpena says New York has law with broad protections - does not single out journalists for special treatment. Suggests TX needs to be like NY

The bill was left pending in committee, but that was expected. I was very impressed with the knowledge of Rep. Pena, the quality of the testimony of Vince and KT, and the attention to the matter by the committee. Kuff, Eileen Smith and I submitted written testimony in favor of the bill. My testimony is below:

Martha Griffin April 27, 2009 Testimony IN FAVOR of HB 4237 I’m testifying in favor of Rep. Pena’s HB 4237 to provide protection to bloggers covering matters of public concern such as this hearing. I write two blogs – a political blog and one on public education. Like most bloggers, I don’t think twice about “liveblogging” a public political meeting. It seems important, if I am there in person, and if it’s of interest to those who couldn’t attend, to share what I am observing. I also think it’s important to think about the open nature of digital communications today. We’ve gone from the stereotype of a few bloggers in their pajamas just a few years ago, to an explosion of ways to communicate on the internet. Blogging is just one way. Millions of people are on Facebook and Twitter. Those two social media tools in particular encourage you to share your “status” – to tell what you are doing and what you are observing to a very wide internet audience. It almost seems like everyone is a blogger. Members of this Texas House blog – and they blog about what happens on the floor of the Texas House – and in committee hearings. I can almost guarantee someone is liveblogging my testimony right now. Some bloggers consider themselves citizen journalists. They aren’t taking the place of traditional journalists, but they add value by getting information out –and from their point of view as a parent, educator, legislator, student, activist or whatever it might be. That’s blogging at its best – reporting plus interesting commentary. I can’t imagine that any of these people ever imagine they could be hauled into court over a blog post about what happens in meetings dealing with public issues. They probably feel it is their right, if not their duty to report their observations and give their readers their point of view. Blogs have a commentary feature, so those who disagree with that point of view or wish to clarify a point, can do so. This seems like a common sense law – to protect Texas bloggers from lawsuits over their reporting and commenting on matters of public concern. I urge you to vote in favor of this bill.