Chilling Effect
By The multi-million dollar federal lawsuit filed against blogger Lance Dutson for a post critical of the advertising agency hired by the state of Maine is indeed highly disturbing. As Jarvis points out, the most frightening part of the suit is its allegation that “Dutson also claimed, falsely, that WKPA is ‘pissing away’ Maine tax money.” In addition to being legally farcical under current First Amendment doctrine, if this type of claim can serve as the basis for a lawsuit any political blogger is under the constant threat of a major lawsuit. Hopefully they won’t sue me for libel when I note that Warren Kremer Paino should change their name to Deignan Advertising…