The Lady Crystal cox, a Portland, Oregon-based blog on finance and industry-related topics, accused Obsidian Finance Group co-founder Kevin Padrick of being a thief and a liar, and was sued for defamation. Before Judge Marco A. Hernandez, Cox he claimed to have received the information regarding Padrick from a reliable and confidential source, which he did not intend to name. This defensive strategy would have saved any journalist from conviction in most US states (Oregon included) since traditional media exponents have the right to protect their sources. Judge Hernandez was therefore forced to answer a rather complex question: Can a blogger be considered a journalist?
The answer came after a few hours of reflection: as Crystal Cox was not affiliated with any news organization, had not received professional training, did not meet the standards required by journalism, such as fact checking and article checking by someone else, she could not be considered a journalist. If she was unable to prove her allegations other than by citing an anonymous source, she was to be ordered to pay $2,5 million in damages.
Faced with the sentence, the world of the web is obviously divided. Many think that freedom of the press should be guaranteed to anyone with an internet connection, others insist that we must continue to defend the rules and hierarchies that govern the journalistic profession. Bernstein and Woodward, the reporters of the Watergate case, also cited anonymous sources, but each of their articles was discussed, before being published, with the director, the editor Katharine Graham, and a bevy of lawyers. And it is only thanks to this thorough control work that they finally won.
