Are Blogs Killing Free Speech?

10:40 | Phil Leigh | Jan 25th, 2007 1:39pm |

The first amendment has always been nettlesome, but a thriving online community of bloggers is proof that excercising constitutional freedoms can be healthy and profitable. Blogs they also have a tendency to rock the boat, raising new challenges for corporations — and the courts — to navigate. This case began with a fairly typical talk radio station and its fairly typical blowhard personalities doing what they’re paid to do. They ruffle feathers. But this time, they ruffled the feathers of a listener who recorded potentially-offensive segments and then posted them to a blog. “Spocko,” the blogger, along with several others, contacted many of the radio station’s advertisers and encouraged them to stop advertising on the station. The station — KSFO-AM in San Francisco — is owned by ABC Radio Networks, which is owned by the Walt Disney Company. ABC asked Spocko’s Internet service provider to pull the clips down, and that ISP promptly complied. The story has appeared in papers from San Francisco to New York (including The New York Times). To help explain some of the legal implications of the case — and the free speech issues involved, Inside Digital Media’s Phil Leigh spoke with David Wittenstein of Dow Lohnes.

Tags: first amendment, KSFO, free speech, Inside Digital Media, Phil Leigh, David Wittenstein, Dow Lohnes

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 25th, 2007 at 1:39 pm and is filed under PodTech, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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