I found this to be quite interesting.  The judge found that not only are blogs not news - not only are bloggers not journalists - but bloggers shouldn't be shielded by protections journalists are.

NJ Judge Says Blogs Not News; Blogger Open to Defamation Suit

Camryn Hansen

Contributor

July 10, 2009 10:54 PM

In the trial of Washington State blogger Shellee Hale, Superior Court Judge
Louis Locascio of Monmouth County has ruled that Hale is not protected
under New Jersey’s journalist shield law because she is a blogger
rather than a mainstream media journalist.

Acknowledging that he was wading into largely uncharted legal
waters, said Shellee Hale's message board postings last year about a
Freehold-based computer software company were nothing more than the
rants of "private person with unexplained motives for her postings" and
cannot be given the same protections as information compiled though the
process of news gathering.

"To extend the newsperson's privilege to such posters would mean
anyone with an email address, with no connection to any legitimate news
publication, would post anything on the internet and hide behind the
shield law's protections," Locascio wrote.

"The rate at which the internet has grown and evolved into a
universal source of news and information has left the legal community
in its dust," Locascio wrote in his 19-page opinion. "The time has come
for the law to begin establishing its place in this vast abyss." -MaryAnn Spoto, The Star-Ledger

 

The ruling also means that Hale can be sued for slander for the
allegedly defamatory statements she posted on an Internet message board
about a software company based in Freehold. Hale had asked to be
protected from the lawsuit by the shield law, which states that
journalists can’t be forced to reveal their information sources.

http://cherryhill.injuryboard.com/miscellaneous/nj-judge-says-blogs-not-...

...nothing more than the
rants of "private person with unexplained motives for her postings" and
cannot be given the same protections as information compiled though the
process of news gathering.

Wow.  Just.  Wow.