Lance Dutson has stopped by Journalism Hope before to talk about what was happening to him. Gary Goldhammer has a good update on Maine's Pay-Per-Gate. As a citizen publisher, I'm sure Dutson could use some support from the far corners of the web.

Goldhammer wrote:

Here’s a case in point – literally. Lance Dutson, a writer who runs the Maine Web Report blog, is being sued by New York advertising agency Warren Kremer Paino Advertising (WKPA). The agency, which handles advertising for the Maine Office of Tourism, alleges that Dutson’s blog “contains numerous defamatory statements designed to blacken WKPA’s reputation, expose WKPA to public contempt and ridicule, and injure WKPA in its business and profession.” The Media Bloggers Association, of which I am a member, is assisting with the case (the MBA has more information about the case and pending legal battle here).

...snip...

Some citizen journalists are motivated by making an impact on their communities, by lending a different perspective on an issue or simply by sharing and adding their voices to the discussion. But they are not restricted by the same boundaries that restrict the professional. Restraint is an option, not an obligation.

Dutson may have been motivated by other factors, I don’t know. He certainly could have exercised more restraint in his choice of words (for example, he could have said the Maine Office of Tourism was “wasting,” not “pissing away” tax money). But he did not appear to unduly harm and he did not break the law. He acted well within his rights as a journalist, a citizen and as an American.

Your thoughts?

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