"Who defines news?"

According to the city council in Lake Oswego, Oregon, bloggers should not be defined as journalists.

Sieon Roux, (aka The Oregonian) writes for oregonlive.com, and he reported that "Bloggers might be excluded from Oregon's executive sessions." According to Roux, "Oregon is one of a few states that allow the media to attend executive sessions, though they are not allowed to directly report on discussions." However, when Mark Bunster, author of political blog 'Loaded Orygun' tried to attend a closed Lake Oswego City Council meeting in 2008, he was asked to leave. Bunster insisted he was part of the news media, but the city council thought otherwise.

Now the state is designing rules and restrictions as to who is allowed to attend executive meetings, which brings up a huge question: who defines news? According to Judson Randall, president of Open Oregon says, "The policy raises new and troubling questions because it attempts to use content and "news" to determine whether a media organization is legitimate."

Becoming recognized as a legitimate journalist and news outlet has always been a hurdle for bloggers to overcome. There are very many successful bloggers, but the problem is that there is still no clear definition categorizing the difference between bloggers, citizens journalists, independent media and established media. This is something much bigger than the State of Oregon city council, and is not something that a city or state government should be able to determine, in order to simply benefit their own interests.