How are we still not journalists - this is sippey.com (via tedr)

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This is a messy story that was not well reported most places.  Here is a deeper dive: http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2011/12/07/investment-firm-awarded-2-5-million-after-being-defamed-by-blogger/

Short version: the court threw out all but one of plaintiff Kevin Padrick’s complaints, saying those were protected speech.  The court allowed the claim to proceed as to one blog post with specific allegations of misconduct.  

Truth is a defense to defamation claims but the blogger Crystal Cox was unable to prove the allegations were true. The jury found for Padrick.  Padrick had requested $1M in damages and the jury awarded $2.5M, most likely influenced by the 1,900 flame sites Cox owned with domains like obsidianfinancialsucks.com.

The journalist vs. blogger line is headline-bait.  The story is that it doesn’t matter what medium you use to publish - if you trash someone in public you need to be able to back up your statements.

(via tedr)