November 2, 2005 by s.z.

'Attack of the Blogs'

"They destroy brands and wreck lives. Is there any way to fight back?"

In the cover article of this month's Forbes, the mag exposes blogs as "the prized platform of an online lynch mob spouting liberty but spewing lies, libel and invective."  Since that's why I got into blogging, I was happy to get a few pointers on how to do this more effectively.  

While most of the piece deals with bloggers who engage in "brand-bashing," I thought these sections were instructive:

ABC News correspondent Linda Douglass came under attack from rampaging bloggers last March in covering the Terri Schiavo right-to-die case. She had cited a controversial memo written by a Republican staffer. Right-wing bloggers using such pen names as Right Pundit and Mr. Right (the latter hosted by Google) claimed she had fallen for a fake; the memo was real.

Of course, one of the biggest backers of the "the Schiavo talking points are fake" claim was John Hindrocket.  And speaking of Hindrocket ...

Even some bloggers see the harm they can pose.

Even some bloggers can see stuff?  Do tell us more, Forbes magazine!

"Some people in the blogosphere are too smug about free speech. They'll say it's okay if people get slandered or if people make up fake stuff because in the end the truth wins out," says John Hinderaker, a lawyer in Minneapolis, Minn. who helps run a right-wing blog, Power Line, which hounded CNN's Jordan and CBS anchor Dan Rather. "But I don't think that excuses it." 
When Hinderaker published an item saying left-wing bloggers should stop assaulting a White House reporter alleged to have worked as a gay prostitute, his blog brethren went on the assault, publishing his phone number at work and prompting a deluge of harassing phone calls and e-mails. "My secretary was crying" because callers kept swearing at her, he says. "Then we started getting calls at the house. My wife wanted to hire a bodyguard."

What kind of scurrilous blog would post Mr. Hindrocket's phone number? 

Oh, I guess maybe this one. 

And I presume that this is the innocent post that caused Hindrocket's fellow bloggers to "assault" him.  It says in part: 

The bottom line is that there isn’t any story here, other than the bottomless depravity of liberals in America. [...] Yesterday I filmed a “Reliable Sources” segment with Howard Kurtz that will air on CNN tomorrow morning. One of the other guests was the above-mentioned Mr. Aravosis. He is obviously a man for whom the concept of shame has no meaning; I was embarrassed to be on the same program with him. [...] The only reason Gannon needed protection is because he came under a vicious, unprovoked, personal attack from low-lifes with web sites, pre-eminently Aravosis, Kos and Atrios. [...] Rarely have I seen such deeply contemptible conduct.

Imagine the nerve of those low-lifes with websites, personally calling Hindrocket's office and making his delicate legal secretary cry! 

(Okay, it goes without saying that swearing at innocent secretaries isn't nice, even though I have my doubts that this ever happened.  Oh, and Glenn Reynolds, stop calling the Hindrocket house -- you're scaring Mrs. Hindrocket, who knows that her husband's mighty kerning skills are no match for your deadly cut n' pasting.)

But Hindrocket is right about how bloggers shouldn't post slander (or libel rather --you'd think that a lawyer would know the difference).  For instance, if somebody accused former U.S. President Jimmy Carter of working for America's enemies, that would wrong, and that person should apologize and never blog again.

Forbes offers some advice about fighting blog-libel.

Once blogger attacks begin, victims can resort to libel and defamation lawsuits, but "filing a libel lawsuit, the way you would against a newspaper, is like using 18th-century battlefield tactics to counter guerrilla warfare," says David Potts, a Toronto lawyer who is writing a book on cyberlibel. "You'll accomplish nothing and just get more ridicule." He tells clients to find a third party to bash the bloggers.

Hey, that sounds like a niche that I could fill!  So, if you are experiencing a blogger attack, I would be happy to bash your blogger for you.  In fact, my new motto will be, "Have Blog, Will Bash!"  I think you'll find my rates reasonable, and my bashing second-to-few.

Forbes tells the story of Gregory Halpern, who claims that he suffered financial losses after bloggers accused him of fraud, and the price of shares in his company dropped. 

After anonymous attacks spread to Yahoo, Halpern moved in court to force Yahoo to reveal who was behind the sniping. In September a state judge in Illinois ordered Yahoo to reveal the names. A lawyer for the secret posters is trying to settle without turning over their names, Halpern says. Yahoo declines to comment on the case, but Halpern argues that Yahoo and other carriers should step up: "They make money selling ads on these message boards, and the controversial material generates the most traffic. So they're benefiting from this garbage. I think they should take responsibility for it."

Halpern has had less luck getting anyone in Congress to listen to his plaint. He says that may change if a few politicians get a taste of what he has gone through. "Wait until the next election rolls around and these bloggers start smearing people who are up for reelection,"Halpern says. "Maybe then things will start to happen."

Politicians smeared by bloggers?!? That could never happen!

Well, about 17 pagraphs back, the piece did quote a Democratic consultant who mentioned the bogus story about John Kerry's affair with an intern, but I guess Halpern never reads the Drudge Report (which isn't mentioned by name, but calling the offending site "scurrilous" was a tip-off), and so is unaware of this ever actually occurring. Oh, and I guess the author of the article forgot about that anecdote, what with all the scary stories about stock prices dropping due to evil bloggers.

But you know who Halpern should talk to? Bill O'Reilly! Bill would be happy to help Halpern try to get the Internet shut down because of all its smears on famous people. But better yet, Bill should talk to me about paying me to bash his detractors (most notably Media Matters, which follows the unethical practice of listening to what he says, and transcribing it for all to read). For an additional fee, I'll also come up with elaborate fantasies about how Bill would win Old West shoot-outs with obscure bloggers who dared to mock him. And if Forbes wants to hire me to attack those bloggers who make fun of this article, we can talk about that too.
1:49:11 AM