Bloggers as journalists – deciding judge doesn’t know what blogs are

Talk about leaving your fate in the hands of angels. That is probably how Shellee Hale who as part of a defamation law suit against her is feeling right now. One of the parts of the lawsuit is that the plaintiff in the case, Too Much Media LLC, is demanding that Hale be forced to reveal who her source was for the information that was being used in posts about the company.

The posts are part of an investigation that Shellee Hale was working on about the security breaches experienced by online services using Too Much Media’s security software. The problem is that the judge deciding the case doesn’t have the first clue about blogs, forums or even instant messaging.

Locasio started off by seeing a primer on the basics. Inquiring about one blog that Hale frequented to glean information about internet security breaches, Locasio asked why the author would spend so much time writing on one.

“Why would a guy put all this stuff on a blog? Does he have nothing better to do?” Locasio asked. “Does he get paid?”

She tried to enlighten him about the goal she shares with thousands of other bloggers on the internet.

“To inform the public so they had one place to go,” she replied. “It’s just a passion that many of us have to make the world a better place.”

He stopped Hale or the attorneys every time they threw out another cyber term he didn’t understand. Words like cyberflashers, avatars, cams and exploits.

He directed Hale to explain the differences between blogs, message boards and forums. He asked for a quick tutorial on instant messaging.

Source: NJ.com

This would almost be laughable if it wasn’t such a serious matter. Here we have a judge set to retire in the next month or two who acknowledges his ignorance about one of the most integral parts of the case but could end up setting precedent.

Hale would probably have better luck with Judge Judy.