BOB GARFIELD: About a year ago, a town councilman in Smyrna, Delaware started reading about himself on a blog devoted to local politics. Unfortunately for him, what he read was none too laudatory. The blogger accused Councilman Patrick Cahill, among other things, of “having an obvious mental deterioration” and of being secretly gay. Cahill decided to sue the anonymous blogger for defamation. He appealed to the cable company hosting the blog to release the blogger’s identity, but the blogger went to court to block the cable operator from cooperating. Earlier this month, the Delaware Supreme Court ruled in favor of the blogger, becoming the highest court in the land thus far to weigh in on the issue of Internet anonymity. The decision has been praised by many media watchers, including University of Minnesota journalism professor Jane Kirtley, who joins me now. Jane, welcome back.
JANE KIRTLEY: Thank you.
BOB GARFIELD: Just to be clear, can you just describe the kinds of things that were written about Councilman Cahill on this blog?
JANE KIRTLEY: Well, this is what some would call robust political debate and what others would call character assassination.
BOB GARFIELD: Now, if I understand the ruling, had this blogger not said that the guy was paranoid and losing his grip on his sanity but instead had said I can prove that he took money from such-and-such a person as a bribe, or any other such allegation, then this could have turned out very differently.
JANE KIRTLEY: Absolutely. There’s a footnote in this opinion which makes clear that the court is not in any way saying that bloggers can say whatever they want on the Internet and not worry about being sued for libel. What they are saying is that when you’re engaging in speech that is clearly hyperbolic, that is clearly not intended to be taken as a literal statement of fact, that there has to be a lot of deference given to the freedom to express opinions in inflammatory ways.
BOB GARFIELD: There were instances of this going back to the Federalist Papers of citizens participating in controversial public debates by publishing anonymous opinions.
JANE KIRTLEY: That’s right. You know, there — there are those who have said that the Internet has gotten us back to the first principles of the — what the Supreme Court of the United States once called “the lonely pamphleteer.” Now everybody with a computer and a modem is “the lonely pamphleteer.” It’s a long tradition we’ve had for more than 200 years that when we’re criticizing those in power, we should have the right to do so without identifying who we are. Now, again, it’s what you think. It’s your opinion. If you start stating facts, that’s another matter.
BOB GARFIELD: As we often see in the blogosphere, hyperbolic opinion can quickly coalesce into conventional wisdom. I’m curious if there is a point under this ruling where precisely the kind of opinion that this anonymous blogger was promulgating could be considered at some point defamation when it becomes accepted as truth.
JANE KIRTLEY: That’s an interesting question. Obviously, people can take statements of opinion and morph them into facts, but I think here we would look at the original posting. We would look at the context, which is something the Delaware Supreme Court did focus on here and said nobody could have taken this literally. I mean, it’s very similar to the case some years ago involving the Reverend Jerry Falwell and Larry Flynt in Hustler Magazine, where Larry Flynt, in an ad parody, suggested that the Reverend Falwell’s first sexual encounter was with his mother in an outhouse. It was clearly pure opinion, pure parody. The Supreme Court years ago, I mean, back in the 1970s, said that pure opinion, particularly about public officials and public figures, has to enjoy absolute protection under the First Amendment. I think the same analysis would apply here.
NPR on Anonymous Bloggers and Character Assassination
As blogland’s debate over the Forbes story, “Attack of the Blogs,” continues, here’s a relevant interview from NPR’s On the Media:
Read or listen to the full interview here. (You can also download On the Media on your iPod.)
Tags: dallas public relations, npr, PR Blog