Tag: blogs

InstaPundit threatens “massive resistance”

InstaPundit Glenn Reynolds yesterday posted favorably on Question One, the Massachusetts ballot measure that would repeal the state income tax. And he does so, in part, with an unsupported smear and a non-existent quote. (Via Hub Blog.)

“Most of the people complaining live, directly or indirectly, off the taxpayers’ dime, of course,” writes Reynolds, offering not a shred of evidence for that remarkable assertion. Most? Please. Then he adds: “And they’re pledging a campaign of ‘massive resistance.'”

Well, now. Follow Reynolds’ link, and you’ll come to a story on the Web site of WCVB-TV (Channel 5) that contains nothing even remotely akin to the phrase “massive resistance.” Nor does anyone say the magic words in an accompanying video story by Channel 5’s Jorge Quiroga.

For that matter, if you search Google News for the phrase “massive resistance,” you will find nothing pertaining to Massachusetts. And if you try Google Blog Search, you will get exactly one hit: Reynolds’ post.

Libel insurance for bloggers

Blogging can be a legally hazardous activity, especially if you are doing it independently. If a staff reporter for an established news organization is sued for libel, he or she is in for an exceedingly unpleasant experience — but at least the employer and its insurance company will pay to fight the charges or settle.

Last year I attended a conference at which the subject of bloggers and liability came up, and let’s just say that it was chilling, in all senses of the word. Right now Cape Cod Today blogger Peter Robbins is facing a libel suit. What too many bloggers fail to understand is that they are not exempt from libel laws. They just lack the means to fight back.

That’s why a new project by the Media Bloggers Association is so interesting. MBA president Robert Cox (in photo) has come up with a new program under which bloggers who take an online course in media law will be eligible to purchase libel insurance.

It’s not cheap — David Ardia of the Citizen Media Law Project, who helped write the online course, says that it will cost a minimum of $450 a year. A prominent local blogger who’s been corresponding with me about this looked into it and was told that, in his case, it might be almost twice that. But it’s a lot cheaper than losing your home, which is what many bloggers are unwittingly risking.

Cox is a longtime leader in legal issues facing the blogging community, and he deserves a lot of credit for bringing this program to fruition.

Photo (cc) by J.D. Lasica and republished here under a Creative Commons license. Some rights reserved.

Cracking down on hit-and-run attacks

Well, I’ve done it. I just changed the settings of Media Nation so that you now have to register in order to leave a comment. What pushed me to flip the switch were some of the truly ugly comments made about Robert Novak’s brain tumor, as well as the news that Universal Hub’s Adam Gaffin is going to require registration. A terrific “On the Media” story about commenting on news sites was a goad as well.

The last time I considered this, I was talked out of it by a few smart people who explained the downside of registering with Google, Blogger’s corporate owner. (I’ve given my life to Google, but that’s my choice.) But those days are now long gone. In addition to Google/Blogger, you’ve got five options: OpenID, WordPress, LiveJournal, TypePad and AIM. With all those choices, registration should be a burden to no one.

Nor have I eliminated anonymity. I don’t mind pseudonyms. I think someone who adopts a consistent persona, like Mike B1, can be as valuable a contributor as someone who uses his or her real name. It’s the totally anonymous hit-and-run attacks I’m trying to eliminate.

There’s something in it for you, too. I’ve also changed the settings so that as long as you are commenting on a post less than two weeks old, it will go up immediately, without my having to moderate it first. Maybe it will work, maybe it won’t. We’ll see how it goes.

More: I’m not going to be around much today. But if you run into any problems posting comments, send me an e-mail at da {dot} kennedy {at} neu {dot} edu.

Political blogging and community

I’ve got an essay in the summer issue of Nieman Reports on political blogs and what the traditional media can learn from them.

At their worst, political blogs of the left and right do little more than reinforce their readers’ prejudices. At their best, though, they provide a virtual community in much the same way that newspapers at their height served a geographic community, helping them understand the news in the context of what like-minded people are thinking.

The question is whether the traditional media can learn those lessons without giving up their journalistic souls.

Style question

Another one for the brain trust. When I use block quotes, I do not use quotation marks. I’ve got an example from this morning — my post on the McCain op-ed. The indented text is a direct quote from McCain’s unpublished piece.

Now, that’s pretty standard in publishing, whether you’re talking about magazines, books or academic papers. But such conventions do not necessarily travel all that well to the Web. I received a comment a little while ago from someone who was confused.

Although I can’t scare up an example at the moment, I have seen blogs that use indents for block quotes and quotation marks. It’s a little bit like using a belt and suspenders, but I’d rather make it too clear that I’m quoting than not clear enough.

What do you think?

Using a blogging tool as a CMS

Blogging tools can only go so far, apparently. I’m the editor of my church’s Web site, and I’m planning a relaunch sometime later this summer or fall. At first I thought I would simply do it all in HTML with Sea Monkey or KompoZer.

But I realized I wanted a basic content-management system that could handle menu updates and that would provide a slicker look than I could do on my own. Mainly I need a CMS with short, flat learning curve. That rules out Drupal or Joomla, to name two solutions that webmasters who are smarter than I am get very excited about.

My thoughts turned to a free blogging platform. Naturally, though, neither of the easiest solutions is quite right.

WordPress.com offers the ability to create as many static pages as I want, and even allows me to set one of those static pages as the home page, with the blog residing somewhere underneath. That gets me 95 percent of the way there, and, frankly, it’s probably what I’m going to settle on. But customizing the template is, for all intents and purposes, not allowed. I can’t make the type size bigger. I don’t seem to be able to dump the blog-post calendar, which I’m afraid people will confuse with the church’s calendar of events.

I could try WordPress.org, but that would draw me into a world of effort and confusion that I’m trying to avoid. (See Drupal and Joomla, above.)

Blogger.com is much more flexible and easily customized. But it offers no static pages, which rules it out.

Frustrating.