Libel Suits, Insurance -- Amateur Blogging Unsustainable?

This might take the wind out of my blogging colleagues' sails:

Miami real estate agent Lucas Lechuga began blogging to share his knowledge of the local market. He didn't bargain for a $25 million defamation lawsuit when he wrote that a Miami developer had gone bankrupt decades ago.

In Lake Geneva, Wis., commodities trader Gary Millitte registered the Internet domain name LakeGenevaNews.com eight years ago, but is so worried about the legal boundaries of writing online that he still hasn't started the ultra-local news site [Caryn Rousseau, "Training Helps Bloggers Hone Professionalism," AP via Yahoo News, 2008.06.14].

$25 million dollar lawsuit? Ouch. And I thought I had it bad with a disgruntled parent buying up my domain names (and renewing them even after I've been out of the Montrose School District for a year—good thing MadvilleTimes.com, .net, and .org are safe!)

The Society of Professional Journalism is offering training for citizen journalists to learn how to keep out of hot water. Robert Cox of the Media Bloggers Association was at the Journalism That Matters conference in Minneapolis last week promoting a new liability insurance product for bloggers. Ugh again: bog blogging down with professional training, insurance (blogging licenses, anyone?), and the pursuit seems to lose some of its rough and ready amateur luster. It feels like making the kids at the park attend kickball training classes and getting their parents to sign waivers before the kids set foot on the grass. Can't we just play ball?

Maybe that's just the way the media work: various business and legal pressures will weed out most of the regular folks, and blogging and other online efforts will become as formal and hierarchicalized as other industries. Lack of professional certification, insurance, and union membership may be my (and Todd's? PP's? not Sibby's—he's unstoppable!) undoing, as bigger, better funded media operations gobble up market share.

But we aren't there yet. Some of us remain uncredentialed, unaffiliated, and unbeholden to the propaganda wing of Tim Johnson's campaign. Even my KELO blogging comes with no strings attached (amazing: eight months posting on corporate media, and I haven't gotten in trouble yet!). What more certification do we bloggers need than our sworn loyalty to the Constitution... and a love of telling stories?

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Bonus Update 09:17 CDT—Stay amateur, but learn from professionals... for free! See Knight Citizen News Network's "Top 10 Rules for Limiting Legal Risk." Check your facts, avoid virtual vendettas, obey the law... good common sense stuff!