What You Say in Your Blog Can Come Back to Haunt You
By Joe Ferry on Nov 10, 2008 in Featured | comments(0)
Leslie Richard thought she was doing her fellow business owners a favor when she took Vision Media Television to task in a blog post. The North Carolina businesswoman said she felt “creeped out” after learning that VMT’s offer to include her in a news story that would run on PBS, or maybe CNN, would cost her about $25,000. Hoping to alert other small businesses to what she felt was a misleading sales pitch, Richard used words like “scam” and “lies” in her blog post.
Not a good idea. VMT got wind of the post, sued Richard for $5 million in lost revenue and $15 million more in punitive damages. Lawyers have been working out a settlement after Richard agreed to take down the blog post.
The lesson here is that blogs do not enjoy special protection when it comes to libel or defamation. As attorney Marc Zwillinger says in the story that appeared in the November issue of Inc.com, anything posted on a CEO’s blog — including reader comments — can be construed as carrying the weight of a company’s endorsement. That can put an entire business in jeopardy, he says.
Added Seth Godin: “Blogging is a cheap and scalable way to talk to interested people. But understand that while you advocate for your company, you are also walking a tightrope from a legal and business point of view.”
Popularity: 18% [?]
