Thursday, May 17, 2007

City of Ponoma and Why Blogging is Great

Some guys over at Foothills Cities, a blog about the LA area, have attracted the ire of the City of Ponoma. Ponoma is claiming that something on the blog is libelous and the city attorney has threatened a lawsuit.

The only problem is that it is impossible to libel a government agency (See New York Times v. Sullivan).

Why exactly is the city attorney threatening a suit he can't bring in his official capacity? Is he threatening to sue on behalf of some private interests? Let me ask, with Instapundit, why tax dollars should pay for lawuits aimed at private interests?

Instapundit is all over it. The Volokh Conspiracy is, too.

The blogosphere is going to make sure that the City of Ponoma, its officials and its taxpayers, know the First Amendment pretty well by the time this is over.

News as public education! The academy and the polity in dialogue about real problems!

Blogs exist for this kind of stuff.

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