On page 9 of a 13-page ruling, Judge Hernandez last month set out these requirements to qualify as a journalist:

• Education in journalism.
• Credentials or proof of affiliation with a recognized news entity
• Proof of adherence to journalistic standards such as editing, fact-checking, or disclosures of conflicts of interest
• Keeping notes of conversations and interviews conducted
• Mutual understanding or agreement of confidentiality between the defendant and his/her sources
• Creation of an independent product rather than assembling writings and postings of others
• Contacting “the other side” to get both sides of a story

‘Without evidence of this nature, defendant is not ‘media,” the ruling says. Obviously, the judge — an Obama appointee — doesn’t understand either media or the First Amendment. His ruling also went much farther than the case before him required. (Cox lost a $2.5 million verdict.) —You Be The Judge: Are Bloggers Journalists? – Forbes.