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As his fledgling Internet blog analyzing the Duke lacrosse case grew in popularity, KC Johnson made a conscious decision to hold himself to the same intellectual standards while blogging that he lives by at his day job as a college professor in New York."I have my own professional reputation within higher education," Johnson said recently. "If I produce something on the Web that's all rumor and innuendo ... that's going to reflect badly on me."But not every blogger has a professional reputation to protect. Far from it, in fact. Bloggers -- including 12 million adult Americans, according to a study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project -- fit no stereotype. There are bloggers of all ethnicities, ages and political backgrounds, but they have one thing in common: the ability to communicate freely with the world from the comfort of home with as much anonymity as they like.With that in mind, some ethicists and Internet junkies have crafted their own codes of ethics, policies they'd like to see followed by bloggers, be they policy wonks commenting on politics or suburban teenagers critiquing a classmate's wardrobe. The problem is, blogging is so vast that it is nearly uncontrollable. Bloggers -- known collectively as the "blogosphere" -- need not be licensed, pass any test or register with any regulatory agency. They can follow a code of ethics if they choose. Or not."A lot of bloggers see themselves as these First Amendment cowboys," said Martin Kuhn, who crafted his own blogging ethics code recently while a graduate student at the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Journalism and Mass Communication. " 'Hey, we'll say what we want! Nobody tells us what to say.' "A blog -- a term shortened from "Web log" -- is basically an active, Web-based diary through which a person can offer largely unedited thoughts and musings on all manner of topics. A blog has a stream-of-consciousness feel to it; you type out a thought and it immediately hits the screen, inviting reaction. Bloggers tend to control content by selecting the topics and vetting reactions before allowing them to be posted. But bloggers are just as liable as mainstream journalists for what they write, and they can be sued for libel, experts say. That stark truth is playing out in courtrooms around the country, with bloggers beginning to realize the real-world ramifications of the snide comment fired into cyberspace.Lawsuits are one riskIn Washington, one former U.S. Senate aide sued another over a blog that detailed their sexual dalliances. In Boston, a lawyer who wrote an angry blog item accusing a city councilman of being drunk after the councilman rear-ended him saw that blog entry work against him in court. The councilman's attorney introduced the blog entry as evidence that the attorney's testimony was politically motivated. And in San Antonio, an assistant principal sued two of her high school students, accusing them of defaming her by posting her picture and lewd comments on Myspace.com, a popular social networking Web site. "The lawsuits coming out are a hard life lesson that you're talking to the whole world, including people who are not in your private circle and can be hurt by what you have to say," said Dave Heller, an attorney with the New York City-based Media Law Resource Center, which tracks blog lawsuits. At least 50 lawsuits have been filed in the past two years related to message board posts and blog entries. In September, a south Florida woman won an $11.3 million verdict in an Internet defamation lawsuit after another woman called her a "crook," a "fraud" and a "con artist" on an Internet message board, according to news reports. A message board is different from a blog. It's more of a virtual community meeting where people can exchange thoughts on equal terms.
Staff writer Eric Ferreri can be reached at 956-2415 or eferreri@nando.com.
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