"The Press"

Is the press a tool or an institution that deserves special protection? I think both arguments are reasonable, leaning toward some sort of special protections (not absolute, such as a modified source privilege) but do note things like definitional problems. "Press" is not simply "media." I can imagine a corporation having a separate "media" department with the institutional norms that suggests though like Citizens United and PACS, is that something that can be required? And, I'm not tied to some "originalist" rule here. It's 2012.