First, delink the lawyers
: Glenn Reynolds is back with the sage observation (from a lawyer) that it doesn’t look too productive to send lawyers gunning for bloggers.
Does this mean that it’s always a mistake to send lawyers after bloggers? I suppose not. But I have to say that so far that’s how it looks. The ill-fated Luskin / Atrios dispute, the New York Times / National Debate facedown, and now this [the case of John Gray and his degrees] all suggest that sometimes it’s better just to let minor things go by than to issue threats that give the subject matter a much higher profile than it otherwise would have had. At the very least, a polite message pointing out the error, and requesting a correction without threats and bluster, is likely to do more good, and generate far less blowback. Bloggers are, in my experience, quite willing to correct errors of fact, but not impressed with threats and bluster.
Still, there will be blusterers who will threaten. I still want to see all the blogging lawyers — and there are many — band together to offer education and support (about a legal aid society for bloggers that will at least respond to lawyer letters with lawyer letters on your behalf?).
