In the pre-Web days, someone like Ms. Cox might have been one more obsessive in the lobby of a newspaper, waiting to show a reporter a stack of documents that proved the biggest story never told. The Web has allowed Ms. Cox to cut out the middleman; various blogs give voice to her every theory, and search algorithms give her work prominence.
BUT! It’s a bit more complicated than most of the media are reporting (as usual). If you look for the words “even if” in the opinion (scroll down), you’ll see why Cox would be on the hook for the $2.5. million regardless of whether she was considered a journalist.
The Oregon shield law at issue doesn’t apply to civil defamation cases, so not even The Oregonian would be protected by it.
Broadly speaking though, it’s a good example of why, as NYU journalism professor Jay Rosen tweets, “courts should protect acts of journalism, not kinds of people.”
The second some jerkoff hits a computer key, he thinks he’s a journalist. These clowns put out stuff every day to damage people.
