Don't sue me, bro!

I’m glad I’m not Crystal Cox.

The “investigative blogger,” as she calls herself – she also calls herself a “Reputation Manager,” “Real Estate Broker Owner” and “Nutritional Supplement Distributor” for Good Life International dietary supplements – was found guilty of defamation in federal court in Oregon recently. The jury voted unanimously to fine her $2.5 million.

Crystal Cox

In a Raw Story report entitled, “Federal judge: Blogger not entitled to media protections,” writer Eric W. Dolan explains that “Crystal L. Cox of Montana was sued in January by the Obsidian Finance Group for defamation after she claimed the firm’s co-founder, Kevin Padrick, acted illegally during bankruptcy proceedings. She posted that he was a ‘thug’ and a ‘thief,’ which she claims was based on an inside source. But U.S. District Judge Marco A. Hernandez ruled that Cox was not protected by Oregon’s shield law, which allows journalists to protect their sources.”

The judge also said there was no proof that Cox adhered to journalistic standards and she had no professional qualifications as a journalist.

I don’t have a journalism degree and don’t always refer to my journalistic standards checklist before clicking on “post” either. I strive for clarity and accuracy and deal with verifiable facts and truths, to be sure, but part of capturing and keeping readers is writing compellingly, I think, even if it means peppering sentences and paragraphs with names, words and phrases upon which necktie-wearing New York Times editors might frown.

Defamation is defined as “any intentional false communication, either written or spoken, that harms a person's reputation; decreases the respect, regard, or confidence in which a person is held; or induces disparaging, hostile, or disagreeable opinions or feelings against a person.”

I don’t intentionally disseminate false information. I think politicians are fair game and I don’t lose sleep because I’ve written disparagingly about ‘em or somehow diminished the respect they enjoy. (A New York Times poll back in October found that just nine percent approved of Congress. I’m pretty sure I’m not responsible for more people approving of polygamy than Washington lawmakers.) But it does concern me that bloggers have been hit with $47 million in defamation judgments, according to the Media Law Resource Center (up from $17 million just two years ago.)

Interestingly, Cox’s website includes the following prominently-featured quote: “Believe nothing, no matter where you read it or who has said it, not even if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.”

Know who said this? Buddha. (At least that’s what Crystal Cox claims.) I bet he had more money to pay attorneys than I do.



Sources: Raw Story, Huffington Post, CrystalCox.com.