Shield Us All?

How far is the local newspaper willing to extend it's editorial position that “a reporter is not an extension of law enforcement” and therefore is exempt from the normal responsibilities of citizenship? If an old-line news medium such as the local paper needs the protection of a shield law to exempt it's reporters, is it also supportive of extending that law to protect me, as a blogger, from having to disclose the sources of the information I share with the public?
Floyd Abrams, the noted First Amendment lawyer has stated, "I think a blogger who communicates with and tries to communicate with thousands of people is not less deserving than a journalist who may communicate with a smaller audience through a small-town newspaper. There should be protection so long as information was obtained for the purpose of dissemination to the public at large in some sort of analogous way to what journalists do.”
Are you with me local journalists?