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Columnist Threatens to Sue Blogger
floppy ears writes "Pseudonymous blogger Atrios has been threatened with a subpoena and lawsuit for defamation. Apparently Atrios used a headline 'Diary of a Stalker' in reference to Donald Luskin. In response to the posting, several anonymous commentators made some allegedly libelous statements about Luskin, and now Luskin has hired an attorney and started making threats and demands. The funniest thing is that Luskin has previously referred to himself as a stalker in his own headline: 'We Stalked. He Balked.'."
fascinating that people others want to know their daily rants and raves, what even fascinates me more is the people who read them. Are most bloggers some famed person who has achieved greatness and is willing to give insight into how they do what they do? No, it's bob the mechanic down the hill that repaired a faulty transmission on a '62 Buick the other day who just so happens to have a really cool website with his own personal blog section.
- wash, rinse, repeat.
Is it a sign of the times that those who dissent seem to be attacked by those in power, or has that always been the case?
My goodness, now if anyone says anything that makes you look bad, you're gonna sue them.
IMHO, libel and slander have always been valid reasons to pursue restitution in the courts.
Why should blogging should not have any more protection than other forms of publishing (or speaking publicly for that matter)?
Luskin's attacks on Krugman for National Review Online are often rather despicable. I am a conservative, but I can't stand reading Luskin. Besides, Krugman does have some good points. He has been saying that our record deficit (as high a percentage of the GDP as in the Reagan years) is leading to one of three options in the next decade: A) A steep tax hike soon B) A drastic cut in Government programs C) a financial crisis when the market decides that the government is not going to pay them back.
Bush is aiming at B, but he has made no political preparation for it. Nobody is ready to accept drastic cuts in Medicare and Social Security. Without that preparation, we are most likely headed towards C.
http://invisiblog.com/ - uses MixMaster/CypherPunk anonymous email to post your blog, use a GPG key to sign it to prove it's you posting.
"Two people can keep a secret, but only if one of them doesn't know it" (i.e. your identity)
Luskin himself on the responsibility of board moderators for content expressed therein:
5 8. html
http://www.thestreet.com/comment/openbook/10609
August 30, 2000 -
The worst solution to the problem of manipulation on discussion boards is to shift the responsibility for enforcement from the regulators to the board sponsors. The host of an online discussion board is no more in a position to monitor and assure the quality of every posted message than a "common carrier" such as AT&T is to monitor every utterance made over its telephone network.
Ok, let's stop right here and apply some good, old-fashioned common sense to this.
If Joe Writer for the Nowhere News writes a column, it's likely he is viewed as a professional jounalist. Regardless of the circulation of Nowhere News it is more likely the few people who read it would believe it because it is Nowhere News' job to present factual information.
Now, if some 13 year old on a blog calls you a faggot or a child molestor it's not likely anyone of the millions upon millions of people in his world wide audience will stop and think "wow, I've really got to watch out for this RobotRunAmok guy".
I think you got it right when you said "amateur ramblings" the "globally distributed" part really doesn't matter.
you're all figments of my deranged imagination