West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals Chief Justice Brent Benjamin, right, chats with Philadelphia lawyer, and legal blogger Howard K. Bashman following a panel discussion on blogging and the First Amendment at Marshall University on Sept. 22. The panel discussion was co-sponsored by Marshall and the Court as part of the university's annual observance of Constitution Week. (Photo by Lawrence Smith)

HUNTINGTON - If the past can be considered prologue, then blogs will prove useful, and not harmful to American democracy, says a panel of First Amendment experts.

The topic of blogging, and the limits its pushing on the First Amendment was the topic of a panel discussion held Tuesday, Sept. 22 at the Joan C. Edwards Performing Arts Center at Marshall University. The panel discussion was co-sponsored by Marshall, and the state Supreme Court as part of the university's observance of Constitution Week, and followed the Court's hearing oral arguments in six cases earlier that day.

Both Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Arlington, Va.-based Reporter's Committee for Freedom of the Press, and Corley Dennison, dean of Marshall's W. Page Pitt School of Journalism, say the advent of blogs is no different from the advent of the printing press, and radio and television. Though those media enabled the spread of information in a quick and affordable manner, the Internet has enabled almost anyone with a computer to have the same reach as any traditional media outlet, but at virtually zero cost.

The term blogger is something that Dalglish says she hates. Anyone engaged in the business of gathering news should not be identified by the technology he or she uses.

All the panelists agreed that bloggers are journalists when asked the question by Chief Justice Brent Benjamin, who served as the panel's moderator. Gene Policinski, executive director of the Nashville, Tenn.-based First Amendment Center, said the bloggers become journalists the moment they say they are.

"A functional definition is the best definition," he said.

Kevin Qualls, a professor of journalism at Murray State University in Kentucky, qualified his answer to say that not all bloggers are in the news-gathering business. He said some blog as a hobby or for public relations purposes.

However, he said, they are no less deserving of First Amendment protection should the issue arise.

What has probably got blogging somewhat of a bum rap, the panelist said, is the anonymous person blogging from his basement that's printing potentially libelous information. Howard J. Bashman, an appellate attorney from Philadelphia, who publishes a blog called How Appealing, said a blogger faces the same liability issues any other journalist.

Both he and Qualls said where federal courts may start to speak on the issue is the standard by which an internet service provider must divulge the blogger's identity if served with a subpoena. Because different states have different standards, it leads to potential litigants to forum shop.

Dalglish concurred with Qualls and Bashman saying that someone blogging anonymously from the basement of his parent's home does not give him protection from liability. Conversely, the anonymous blogger has broad latitude in making comments, especially of elected officials. deemed "insulting" that could land him in jail in places like South Africa.

"Can you imagine being thrown into jail because you said something insulting of a politician?" Dalglish said. "Here, we consider it our duty."

The anonymous blogger who is causing controversy, and stirring people to action is a direct descendent of many of the founding fathers like Benjamin Franklin, Dalglish said. In the 18th century, owning a printing press was not a right, but a privilege granted by the king.

"Speaking out via a printing press, which was the technology of the day, could land you in a lot of trouble," she said.

She also noted that John Jay, James Madison and Alexander Hamilton published the Federalist Papers anonymously. Unfortunately, most high school civics class do a poor job of teaching students about those facts.

Benjamin added that the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1995 case of McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Board ruled that anonymous pamphleteering was "an honorable tradition of advocacy."

One area that concerned the panelists was that blogs have made a competitive 24-hour news cycle even more competitive to get news now. However, Policinski said that the competition is good, and that the news gatherers with the most reliable information, either the blogger or the traditional media outlet, will win.

Also, the panelists said the public shouldn't be overly concerned about bloggers putting traditional media outlets, particularly newspapers, out of business. Dennison said that there's a interdependence between bloggers and the news media, and that journalism isn't defined by the ink, paper, and delivery trucks, but what happens in the newsroom, regardless where that may be.