Media Bloggers Unite

Blogging has increased dramatically over the last few years, marked by a proportionate increase in lawsuits. The alleged dangers of internet anonymity prompted Forbes writer, Victoria Murphy Barret, to write in her October article “Anonymity & the Internet” that “Today the Net still protects the abused and the disenfranchised…But it also shields creeps, criminals and pedophiles. It emboldens the mean-spirited and offers them a huge audience for spewing hatred and libel.” Libel remains the largest reason for all reported blog-related lawsuits, followed by privacy, copyright disputes, and harassment, noted Robert Cox, President of the Media Bloggers Association at a Society of Professional Journalists presentation.

No stranger to libel complaints himself, Cox was sued by the New York Times in 2004 for a satirical website criticizing the paper’s corrections policy. The New York Times dropped its charges after its lawsuit garnered significant negative media coverage. Cox currently seeks to resolve the conflict between journalism and blogging, because he feels that bloggers provide a valuable new reporting media. He told a large audience at the Society of Professional Journalists 2007 Convention that bloggers are more vulnerable to lawsuits because they are often isolated and lack professional backing. “I hate to see that while many bloggers are self-congratulatory about this new media. . . the reality is that unless bloggers had the financial resources to defend what they were publishing, like any advanced system, [in danger of] being picked off one by one,” lamented Cox. Cox told Elizabeth Soja, an author for The News Media and The Law,a Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press publication, that that bloggers are far more susceptible to predatory plaintiffs, because they lack resources, and “they just don’t have the personal or financial motivation to keep the blog up.”

Cox also offered some helpful statistics about the liabilities facing bloggers:

• One-fifth of cases occur in California. However, according to USA Today, the California Supreme Court ruled in 2006 that bloggers can only be sued for their original content, not third-party comments posted to the site. Three quarters of blog-related lawsuits involve libel charges.

• Around one third of all cases are either dropped or settled out of court. However, bloggers choosing to settle still pay hefty fines. Cox estimates that bloggers have already paid $17.2 million in fines in the last year.

• Tucker Max, Luke Ford, and Mario Lavendara participated in around 10% of all blog-related cases.

Cox encouraged bloggers at the SPJ Convention to use professional sources, research copyright law, avoid personal attacks, because this would reduce their liability. “Bloggers tend to think of themselves as writers and they don’t know what copyright law is, they don’t know what defamation is, and yet they believe that because they’re writing on the web, that somehow inoculates them from having these kinds of problems,” said Cox. He believes that web-based authors need to realize that “the fact that you write on the web is worse for you if you end up…losing [in a trial], because there’s worldwide distribution for what you wrote…”

The Media Bloggers Association has worked to obtain media credentials for Cox and Lance Dutson, among others, aggregating their commentary into a live feed during the Scooter Libby trial and the 2008 presidential debates. MBA member Dutson was sued in 2006 by the Maine government for negatively depicting the Maine Tourism Office, and for claiming online that the office was “—— away” its tax dollars. When recounting his experience, Dutson told Soja in 2007 that “Although the rules are the same, the challenges that bloggers face are different…The biggest difference between traditional journalists and bloggers is that traditional journalists usually have a company or publication that would stand behind them.” These companies often also have media liability insurance, which may protect against defamation, personal disparagement, invasion and infringement, or other omissions which the plaintiff claims have invoked significant personal harm.

Bethany Stotts is a Staff Writer at Accuracy in Academia.