This is the kind of story bloggers dream about covering. Some bloggers may fear such a story ever being about them and their sites. Others bloggers may well see the inherent value of the controversy and wish it had been about them.
The story is: The popular tabloid Abovethelaw.com has been sued regarding alleged portrayal in an article of an academic in a false light, alleged invasion of privacy, and alleged infringement of copyright. The latter concerns the blog's alleged illegal publication of a photo from a website.
The plaintiff, a University of Miami School of Law professor, wants $22 million in damages and for ATL to also remove all posts from 2007 which refer to him. That plaintiff is Donald Marvin Jones, an African-American, whose law suit has been filed pro se. Yes, pro se. It was filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida on October 27th, 2009, reports Karen Sloan on THE NATIONAL LAW JOURNAL. The defendants are:
- David Lat, ATL Managing Editor
- David Minkin, ATL Publisher
- Breaking Media, ATL parent company which had once been called Dead Horse Media.
The facts, explains Sloan, are that Jones had been arrested by Miami police on August 22, 2007 for allegedly trying to solicit an undercover officer for sex for $20. The charges were later dropped and the record expunged. Before that, ATL published three pieces, including a collage of photos submitted by a person claiming to be a University of Miami law student. Sloan points out
"On the site, Lat referred to the collage as 'irreverent, crass, and politically incorrect humor.' The same post contained the disclaimer: 'We acknowledge that he merely stands accused of wrongdoing; he hasn't been convicted of anything.'"
Lat is a lawyer. The issue in this case might turn out to not be so much about the medium of blogging but about the parameters of humor. What is the line between taking a hilarious angle on an event and between misleading coverage. Could this become another Lenny Bruce type litigation? I doubt it, based on the strange development that Jones filed the suit pro se. We all know that adage: The man who defends himself has a fool for a client. To me it's irrelevant that the man is himself a law professor.