Sean pointed out at the Badger Blog Alliance this morning that, quite quietly, a libel case has been brought against WTMJ 620 AM talk show host by Charlie Sykes, and he asked to hear the opinions of the Wisconsin blogosphere. Or at least the conservative Wisconsin blogosphere, which Sykes has benefited greatly this year. The topic was taken up very ablely here, here, here, here, and here. So once again, the inability to post during the day leaves me sucking hind...nevermind. Rather than contribute to the chorus too much, I'm going to post the notes that I jotted down quickly this morning for posterity's sake, but recommend those 5 links above.
Notes
-Sykes made a quick, good faith effort to remove the offending post.
-Sykes was not personally responsible for any link that remained alive after the post was removed. Companies like Journal Communications have webmasters, IT people, or producers who are responsible for that.
-Standard for libel would seem to extend beyond that for newspapers, which frequently make factual errors, but which are allowed to print little noticed corrections, and TV news, which also makes errors but rarely issues a retraction or correction.
-It does seem that Charlie Sykes and 620 WTMJ were slow to react to the situation after removing the post, but legal advice likely had a lot to do with that. The slow reaction would also play no part in the libel charge.
-While I personally find it a very weak libel charge, it is a good reminder for all bloggers to review and confirm our leads, even if given to us from a reliable source.
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