On August 1st, a congressional panel voted to protect journalists from having to reveal their confidential sources, and explicitly included "professional bloggers" in the category (via Lena). This is definitely a step in the right direction.

Ultimately, I believe it should be a functional test - if you act like a journalist, you deserve the protections reserved for journalists - regardless of what medium you are publishing into. This is especially important since newspapers are on their last legs and many journalists are learning they can make more money publishing for themselves.