Posted on | August 20, 2012 | 14 Comments
The quoted phrase from the Moore v. Hoff ruling should be drilled into the head of every blogger, as it was drilled into my head years ago as a beginning reporter. How many times did my editors tell me, “Get your facts right, and they can’t touch you”?
An editor has a moral obligation to defend at all hazards a reporter who is telling the truth, which is why the first three rules of journalism are accuracy, accuracy, accuracy.
The principles that apply to newspaper reporting should apply equally to blogger Johnny Northside (who reportedly had only 500 readers per day). Get your facts wrong and you’ve got a problem, but nobody can successfully sue you for writing the truth. And plaintiffs who try to claim “harassment” or “tortious infererence” because they know they can’t win a libel case are a menace to the First Amendment.
This is why I became so enraged by the attempts of Brett Kimberlin to silence his critics with “harassment” claims and other legalistic nonsense, and it’s why I have long since tired of Neal Rauhauser’s cowardly efforts to conceal his malicious acts — the “Gaped Crusader”! — with sockpuppet accounts and other deceptions.
Put your name on it, you gutless punk, or shut the hell up.
UPDATE: Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) has introduced anti-SLAPP legislation that would protect journalists (including bloggers) from nuisance suits. The Rhetorican suggests it should be called “The Kimberlin Law.”
UPDATE II: Welcome, Instpundit readers!