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In its attempt to define who鈥檚 a journalist and who鈥檚 not, is the US Senate trying to say that Thomas Paine, a corset-maker, wouldn鈥檛 have deserved the same protections from government heavy-handedness as a newspaper publisher like Ben Franklin?

The first version of a media shield law that handily made it through the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday defined for the first time what constitutes a 鈥渞eal reporter鈥� deserving of extra protection versus what Sen. Dianne Feinstein called a 鈥�17-year-old blogger鈥� who doesn鈥檛 deserve a legal shield.

While Mr. Paine eventually edited magazines in the United States, he鈥檚 best known for his pamphleteering days, when he self-published 鈥淐ommon Sense,鈥� one of the American Revolution鈥檚 most poignant calls to arms. Modern bloggers often see themselves as the inheritors of the pamphleteering tradition, and many wondered on Friday whether Paine would be covered under the proposed law.

That Congress is attempting to define 鈥渏ournalist鈥� at all in order to expand protections after a number of high-profile leak cases and ensuing Justice Department prosecutions caused blog impresario Matt Drudge to call Ms. Feinstein a 鈥渇ascist鈥� on Twitter, suggesting that the law would subvert a free press by giving institutional advantage to government-approved media outlets.

鈥淔ederal judge once ruled Drudge 'is not a reporter, a journalist, or a newsgatherer,'鈥� Mr. Drudge, proprietor of the massive news aggregator site Drudge Report, Tweeted Friday. 鈥淢illions of readers a day come for cooking recipes??!鈥�

On its face, the proposed shield law doesn鈥檛 affect the First Amendment, which at any rate doesn鈥檛 guarantee anybody鈥檚 right to publish whatever they want. The bill simply adds extra protections against being forced to testify about sources for established reporters and freelancers with a 鈥渃onsiderable鈥� amount of publishing experience. It also allows a judge to make a declaration as to who鈥檚 a journalist and who鈥檚 not in an attempt to build the shield as wide as possible.

鈥淎ll we鈥檙e doing is adding privilege to existing First Amendment rights, so there is, logically, zero First Amendment threat out of this,鈥� said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, (D) of Rhode Island.

But conservative bloggers, including some law professors, had a different reaction, suggesting that such a law would give the Department of Justice powerful discretion that could potentially be used to intimidate amateur reporters who are also working in the public interest.

The boom in online news arguably has helped polarize the American political scene, but it has also given readers access to far more data and viewpoints than they had under the system of editors and reporters that make up the traditional American newsroom.

Moreover, largely because the First Amendment extends press freedoms to all Americans, the US has no special licensing requirements for journalists, as many other Western countries do, meaning that the shield law would be the country鈥檚 first attempt to create what critics call an 鈥渆lite鈥� tier for the institutional press.

鈥淛ournalism is an activity, not a profession,鈥� wrote University of Tennessee law professor Glenn Reynolds, who mans the popular InstaPundit blog.

Some senators agreed. 鈥淚t strikes me that we are on dangerous territory if we are drawing distinctions that are treating some engaged in the process of reporting and journalism better than others,鈥� said Sen. Ted Cruz, (R) of Texas. 鈥淓ssentially as I understand this amendment, it protects what I would characterize as the 鈥榗orporate media鈥欌��. But it leaves out citizen bloggers.鈥�

The intent of the federal shield is to enshrine in law what, until the Obama administration, had been maintained mostly as a tradition 鈥� that reporters shouldn鈥檛 have to testify about how or through whom they received sensitive information with a demonstrable public interest.

Fighting back against leakers like Bradley (now Chelsea) Manning, Edward Snowden, and Julian Assange, who have used the Internet to instantly disseminate vast troves of classified data and documents to the global masses, the Obama administration has prosecuted both whistleblowers and reporters who have gained access to that kind of data with an unprecedented vigilance. The administration has also been caught tapping dozens of phone lines at the Associated Press, the nation鈥檚 preeminent wire service.

(Ironically, President Obama has said he supports a shield law that critics point out has been made more necessary by the actions of his administration.)

The bill says that a "covered journalist" is a person who gathers or writes news for "an entity or service that disseminates news and information."

The bill, however, does not offer an impenetrable shield.

Federal officials can still 鈥渃ompel disclosure鈥� from a reporter who has information that could prevent a murder or child kidnapping, help stop acts of terrorism, or information that could cause severe harm to national security.