LISD Board Considering Change in Media Policy: Bloggers Not Welcomed

As a purposeful slap in the face to citizen journalists and institutions such as this blog, Lewisville ISD has on its agenda tonight a policy change intended to squelch district cooperation with bloggers:

District officials shall cooperate with the news media to ensure complete and accurate coverage of all news and events. District officials may turn down an interview request if official press credentials are not presented or available.
To be considered a member of the media, reporters should be employed by a print or broadcast media outlet that has an official publication with a formal form of distribution. Broadcast media outlets are required to have an official timed newscast measured by the Neilson Rating System.

"The liberty of the press is not confined to newspapers and periodicals. It necessarily embraces pamphlets and leaflets. These indeed have been historic weapons in the defense of liberty, as the pamphlets of Thomas Paine and others in our own history abundantly attest. The press in its connotation comprehends every sort of publication which affords a vehicle of information and opinion. What we have had recent occasion to say with respect to the vital importance of protecting this essential liberty from every sort of infringement need not be repeated. Near v. Minnesota, supra; Grosjean v. American Press Company, supra; De Jonge v. Oregon, supra. 2

The ordinance cannot be saved because it relates to distribution and not to publication. 'Liberty of circulating is as essential to that freedom as liberty of publishing; indeed, without the circulation, the publication would be of little value.' Ex parte Jackson, 96 U.S. 727 , 733. The license tax in Grosjean v. American Press Company, supra, was held invalid because of its direct tendency to restrict circulation."