Courts are Cracking Down on Bloggers

The Daily Stinker:

Here we go. Bloggers are now liable for the words that they write. The first ever court case of a blogger being successfully sued for libel has set a precedent that will open the floodgates for even more cases being filed.

Of course, the plaintiff being a lawyer might have had something to do with it (last time that I checked judges are also lawyers, aren’t they).

blogs increasingly are being targeted by those who feel harmed by blog attacks. In the past two years, more than 50 lawsuits stemming from postings on blogs and website message boards have been filed across the nation. The suits have spawned a debate over how the “blogosphere” and its revolutionary impact on speech and publishing might change libel law… Robert Cox, founder and president of the Media Bloggers Association, which has 1,000 members, says the recent wave of lawsuits means that bloggers should bone up on libel law. “It hasn’t happened yet, but soon, there will be a blogger who is successfully sued and who loses his home,” he says. “That will be the shot heard round the blogosphere.”

Crikey! So much for freedom of speech. Now the Blogosphere will become the playground of overpriced lawyers and every Tom, Dick or Asshole that has deep pockets and doesn’t like what you write.

I guess I’d better start editing my old posts (forthwith) and turn off googlebot’s caching privileges. Et Tu Brutus.

But wait a minute! Didn’t a recent court case grant us bloggers the same immunity privileges that our journalist cousins also enjoy? So I can just blame my (misguided) misnomers on my bad sources. Serves them right.

Whew! Ignorance really is bliss. Where’s that Shakespeare guy when you need him?