[Road Warrior ‘04]

This can't be good! Freedom of speech is for everyone!

[Tinman73]

It's a Blogg ! Not national TV news or the new york times.

Read the disclaimer on the home pages for the fact it is a personal comment.

[LiteKeeper]

INTREP

[rdb3]

Dr. Elsebeth Baumgartner and Bryan DuBois run a blog called Erie Voices that focuses on local issues in northern Ohio, especially those that are underreported by local newspapers. Many of their posts deal with judicial and governmental corruption in northern Ohio.

Corruption isn't hard to find up there, believe me.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

The bloggers were arrested in July on charges of intimidation, retaliation, and possession of criminal tools (a computer).

Could you imagine the furor if Dan Ra^ther had been arrested for his shenanigans in connection with his bogus documents debacle, or any of his many forays in yellow journalism?

For that matter, how many journalists are NOT guilty of the above standard for how they've treated GW Bush. This is outrageous.

[Texas_Jarhead]

Free Speech for me but not for thee.

[redpoll]

The little s*** detector went off with this story for a number of reasons. Was the accusation against the prosecutor accurate? If it's like a lot of the flaming I've seen on the Internet - that is, opinion substantiated by overheated emotion - the bloggers are in real trouble. On the other hand, if the accusation IS accurate, then this is real trouble as the state tries to recreate the Peter Zenger trial online - and maybe this time the state will win, especially if they start trying to apply different rules to online expression compared to more traditional media.

My hope is that, in the end, anyone blogging or writing on the Internet has the same broad "freedom of the press, and of expression" that all other media has. Of course, you should still be able to sue for libel or defamation - which will be interesting in itself, seeing how far apart physically some of the complainants would be.

Thanks for posting this. I'll keep an eye on it.