PressEthic

Buzzmachine's Jeff Jarvis quotes friend and fellow media pundit Susan Crawford about the relevancy of libel laws in the age of the Internet:

At a media confab yesterday...Susan Crawford dropped a big thought over a cup of coffee in the hall: Asked the question that is always asked at these what-about-the-bloggers evenets — what about libel — Susan said she thinks there is no need for libel law. She said the internet enables people to respond to libel in a way that was not possible before, when access to the press or the tower was essential to right a wrong.

To be clear, Merriam Webster defines libel as : A written or oral defamatory statement or representation that conveys an unjustly unfavorable impression b (1) : a statement or representation published without just cause and tending to expose another to public contempt (2) : defamation of a person by written or representational means (3) : the publication of blasphemous, treasonable, seditious, or obscene writings or pictures (4) : the act, tort, or crime of publishing such a libel

While difficult, expensive, and time consuming to actually prove, libel appears to be headed toward obsolesence in the age of the Internet. After all, it seems like the biggest appeal of many blogs is their toeing-the-line of libel. Who hasn't read a blog where the writer, free of the restrictions of traditional media, completely eviscerates a public figure without "just cause"? If libel is to remain as is, I don't know how the courts will be able to keep up with the sheer amount of cases that they'd be forced to hear. Still...if libel laws are struck down, won't chaos ensue? What would stop the most unscrupulous blogger from publishing outlandish, blatant lies about a political enemy? Is simply the ability to access the Internet and respond (or "fisk," as Jarvis notes later in his post) enough protection against libel? It seems that such a system would reward simply the most eloquent and forceful speaker and not "the truth." Libel laws have many issues to face as the Internet continues to grow, but scrapping them altogether seems like an dreadful idea.