“The base, poltroon and cowardly talebearer will always act in the background.” Andrew Jackson

Earlier this year I published an article entitled “Honor as a Defining Principle for Life,” which briefly addressed — among other issues — the blogosphere and the rise of the Internet assassin and the sport slanderer. This week, USA Today demonstrates that such bloggers may no longer be able to defame with impunity. An increasing number of private citizens, companies, and even ministries are turning to the courts for legal remedies against those individuals who would use their blogs to bring a false witness.

In “Courts are asked to crack down on bloggers, websites: Those attacked online are filing libel lawsuits,” Laura Parker writes:

The case reflected how blogs — short for Web logs, the burgeoning, freewheeling Internet forums that give people the power to instantly disseminate messages worldwide — increasingly are being targeted by those who feel harmed by blog attacks. In the past two years, more than 50 lawsuits stemming from postings on blogs and website message boards have been filed across the nation. The suits have spawned a debate over how the “blogosphere” and its revolutionary impact on speech and publishing might change libel law. Legal analysts say the lawsuits are challenging a mind-set that has long surrounded blogging: that most bloggers essentially are “judgment-proof” because they — unlike traditional media such as newspapers, magazines and television outlets — often are ordinary citizens who don’t have a lot of money. Recent lawsuits by Banks and others who say they have had their reputations harmed or their privacy violated have been aimed not just at cash awards but also at silencing their critic...

Robert Cox, founder and president of the Media Bloggers Association, which has 1,000 members, says the recent wave of lawsuits means that bloggers should bone up on libel law. “It hasn’t happened yet, but soon, there will be a blogger who is successfully sued and who loses his home,” he says. “That will be the shot heard round the blogosphere.”...

“People take advantage of the anonymity to say things in public they would never say to anyone face-to-face,” Cox says. “That’s where you get these horrible comments. This is standard operating procedure.”...

At its best, the blogosphere represents the ultimate in free speech by giving voice to millions. It is the Internet’s version of Speaker’s Corner in London’s Hyde Park, a global coffeehouse where ideas are debated and exchanged...

The blogosphere also is the Internet’s Wild West, a rapidly expanding frontier town with no sheriff.