General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: DU should win a journalism award! Again the images of the shooter were posted hours before [View all]VanillaRhapsody
(21,115 posts)Thats because [t]he culture of Internet communications, as distinct from that of print media such a [sic] newspapers and magazines, has been characterized as encouraging a freewheeling, anything-goes writing style. . . . Bulletin boards and chat rooms are often the repository of a wide range of casual, emotive, and imprecise speech, and . . . the online recipients of [offensive] statements do not necessarily attribute the same level of credence to the statements [that] they would accord to statements made in other contexts, the court said.
In addition to those posted on Internet bulletin boards and in chat rooms, allegedly defamatory comments published on anonymous blogs or in widely distributed email messages like the one the court was considering also lack the level of credibility readers would give similar remarks made in other contexts, the court noted. - See more at: http://www.rcfp.org/browse-media-law-resources/news-media-law/news-media-and-law-summer-2011/opinion-defense-remains-str#sthash.sxro9sxu.dpuf