Slander, Lies and other Lawsuits

As I read some of the other blogs,
that are run by newspapers, I have
to wonder.

A lot of the newspapers that run blogs
have comment sections. And some of
those comments get really carried away.

Flamers, people who will say things, that
pushes buttons of others, who will come
back and write some pretty heavy stuff.

Most of those are of the political persuasion.
Local ones, can get pretty heavy into the
flaming and name calling. Some of them
have lies about others. Some border on
slander.

Which makes me wonder. I know that those
who have their own blogs, and their comments
can get wild, the owner will delete them. Even
the ones on newspaper blogs get deleted.

But what about the commenter who writes
something slanderous. Isn't the newspaper
putting their necks out there if they don't know
the commenter's? There are a lot of commenter's
who do not use their own names.

So how hard is it, to find out these people, to
find their real names and homes. I know they
can find the server the people used. But can
they actually, if they have to legally know, find
that person?

And how much is the newspaper liable for those
comments? As I would think that the person
who is slandered could and would sue. And
being the only one out there is the newspaper itself.
Should they put in each comment section... the disclaimer:
"The opinion of this comment section is not the newspaper's
but the authors of such comments"?

With the politics getting more and more on line
coverage, with blogs, emails and You tube, what
recourse does the candidate have. Be it national
or local? Lies can spread like wild fire, as we
all know. You tube gets millions of hits. And the lie
spreads. Very well, could ruin a candidate and it
doesn't even have to be true. It can be doctored
papers, pictures.. with Photo Shop.

Look what rumors in the past have done to political
candidates. Michael Dukakis and the Willie the criminal.
Or did his wife burn the American flag?
Kerry and the Swift boats, McCain accused of having
children out of wedlock. And the stuff that was said
about Ross Perot and his family. What was said about
Obama and his wife with his run for the Democrat party.
And still coming. All to be found out as lies after the fact.

Can you imagine what the internet could do with those
stories today? How does a person protect themselves.
Be they, national or local? Whether
they are running for office or already there.

I don't think we have seen how bad it can get yet.