Bloggers Guilty of (gasp!) Informing Public

March 29, 2005, 9:31 pm

In the court case of Apple vs. the bloggers who leaked tech information about an upcoming release of hardware for Apple, the judge has chastised the bloggers for the dastardly deed of "informing the public".

The judge was quoted as saying that the bloggers "are doing nothing more than feeding the public's insatiable desire for information."

Excuse me? whaaa? Is this not the definition of journalism? (I'll concede that the definition has been somewhat stretched as of late.... thanks Mr. Guckert)

While I understand that Apple has a right to their intellectual property but reporters/bloggers also have the right to report news (and this IS important news to a large segment of the computer community) when it is thrown their way. Using this judge's statements I would say a pretty large portion of the news I heard today could fall under his condemnation.

At least Fox news is free and clear... very little true information being distributed there.

Bob Garfield of On The Media has a good interview this week with Susan Crawford, professor of internet law at Cardozo Law School about this case.

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Comments

Posted by www
on March 30, 2005, 12:18 pm

Like drugs, the problem is not with supply, but with demand. As long as people WANT information (damn them), then pushers (bloggers, damn them) are going to supply them.

So what we need is "information addiction rehab" - we need to get people OFF of information as quickly and permanently as possible. Powerful drugs combined with a regimen of Survivor episodes and readings from the Weekly World News might prove effective.

Just say NO to Information!

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