Losing my privilege

Sometime around 2:00 AM on the morning of May 4, a funny thing will happen to me: I will lose my journalistic privilege.

For nearly nine years, I have been a recognized member of some branch of the media either through accreditation, commercial pay or simple affiliation. People often talk about the gray area between who is a member of the press and who isn't – since 1998, I haven't been in that foggy zone, I've been clearly in the media's realm.

I've always used anonymous and background sources heavily, even back when I was on the entertainment beat. It's a practice I've rarely given a second thought to, especially since I would normally just use the information to advance my research, ultimately being able to attribute it to someone else in the final version of an article.

But next week, when the final spring 2006 edition of The Badger Herald goes to press, I will, for the first time since my junior high years, be entering a world in which I am not credentialed as a recognizable member of the media.

So what happens now? There are numerous people who I have worked with closely over the past four years and who have, from time to time, proved sources for articles and columns of mine. Are my conversations with them no longer protected? Is our chatter now subpoena-graspable gossip? Might this blog be enough cause for me to still carry some level of protection?

My natural inclination is to dig toward the truth in all matters that interest me. For the better part of a decade, I've been able to do this digging with the legal protections of whatever state I have lived in.

It's strange to think I am about to lose that protection.