Press & Weblogs... Personal Notes6/5/2000; 7:17:19 AM April 19, 2000: I was thinking about the essay... suppose Dave Winer declared Scripting News to be a member of the press. It's not unreasonable. Would Conxion's attempt to censor him attracted more attention from the more mainstream press?More on that thought-train... USIS -- Issues of Democracy, February 1997 -- Goodale on First Amendment and Press Freedom: "As Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart explained in a 1974 speech, the 'primary purpose' of the First Amendment was 'to create a fourth institution outside the government as an additional check on the three official branches' (the executive branch, the legislature and the judiciary)." Hey, think about this for a second. Is iRights a member of the press, even a little? If that makes sense, then look! I'm part of the fourth branch of the government!The Internet brings government By The People, For The People to the masses again... one way of looking at it is the scaling of the fourth branch of the government to handle the 250 million+ people who now live in this country.This brings a new twist to weblogs that cover politics or political issues... I am fulfilling a civic duty to participate in the Republic with iRights! (Now if THAT doesn't add some legitimacy to the weblog movement, nothing will.)