On The Media: Transcript of "The Calculated Risk of Blogging" (October 3, 2008)

Why I am paranoid when depending on the compitence of others: The
Calculated Risk of Blogging.

BOB GARFIELD: Last week, the blog search engine Technorati released its annual State of the Blogosphere. The conclusion? The state of the blogosphere is strong. In fact, almost half of the 133 million blogs that have been created since 2002 were created in the past year and a half.

But something else was created in direct proportion — potential liability for libel, copyright infringement, defamation or invasion of privacy. The Media Bloggers Association tracks the rising number of lawsuits against bloggers, and MBA founder Robert Cox says that even frivolous litigation costs money to defend, and legitimate claims have no limit.

The mere threat of a lawsuit, he says, is sometimes enough to scare writers out of the blogosphere altogether.
. . .
BOB GARFIELD: All right, one last thing, Bob. There’s a legal principle known as deep pockets. Lawsuits tend to get filed in direct [LAUGHS] relationship to defendant’s ability to pay an eventual judgment.

By insuring bloggers, aren't you deepening their pockets and actually creating a market for litigation that didn't hitherto exist?

ROBERT COX: Bloggers do have assets already. They have future income streams, they have homes, they have cars. And if they lose a judgment and they don't pay the sheriff will be knocking at their door and it won't matter whether they have insurance or not.
http://www.onthemedia.org/transcripts/2008/10/03/06

I spend more time than I should explicitly covering my journalistic ass in the few places I blog outside of here, not because of what I might write. Word to the wise, CYA.

Have a great day,
Mr Baker

Sent from my iPhone