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.'."

I've always found it ...

[Palverone]

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.

observation?

[fegg]

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?

Re:What a royal pussy!

[saddino]

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 v. Krugman

[Henry V .009]

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.

Re:I've always found it ...

[Palverone]

Yeah but the thing is here is a forum where people come to discuss things... Loads of different minds and different opinions get thrown out in masses... you pick through the mindless dribble (80%?) and assimilate what you desire. Blogging on the other hand is focused from one particular individual's mind and more than likely from a complete idiot who thinks he is cool for posting stuff on his own personal website.

Since the articles on /. are hand picked by staff then we are nothing more than a pack of dogs waiting for the alpha to throw us a bone...

Re:correction

[gnu-generation-one]

http://invisiblog.com/ [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)

Re:Luskin v. Krugman

[the_mad_poster]

Partisan politics sucks.

If you get filled with any more shit your head's gonna pop. Partisan politics sucks, but you throw the meaningless term "left" around like it was going out of style? You know, your head DOES contain a brain, it's not just ornamental. You could always just ignore people who insist on taking a party line on every issue since debating things with them is fruitless anyway. At the same time, you could have intelligent debates with people who think about each issue independant of what a particular political affiliation thinks of it. The first step is to realize the anyone who takes a party stance on every issue automatically is an idiot and isn't worth listening to or arguing with. The second step is to realize that anyone who uses meaningless terms like "left" or "right" or "liberal", etc. as a political insult is part of the "party-line idiot grouping" mentioned previously.

Delicious Irony

[sTiv0]

Luskin himself on the responsibility of board moderators for content expressed therein:

http://www.thestreet.com/comment/openbook/106095 8. html

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.

Re:what ever happened...

[hetairoi]

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.