Lake Neuron

All right, I admit it. I was wrong. And I’m now the very last person in Middle Tennessee to blog about the Kat Coble situation. Kat is being asked by an attorney to take down some posts about a career services company with which she and her husband had a bad experience.

I was reluctant to post yesterday about the matter. I was concerned that a minor outbreak of support would actually aggravate the situation. I was also a little annoyed at some of the “don’t back down” and “give ‘em heck” posts; it’s really easy to hand out that kind of advice when it’s not your name on the cease-and-desist letter. Traditional media outlets know that the threat of a defamation lawsuit must sometimes be taken seriously even if you’re innocent; a plaintiff with deep pockets or some other easy access to legal counsel can keep appealing and continuing until the process becomes a form of punishment and you’re forced to settle just to stop the bleeding. It’s never happened to me, thank God, but I know of it happening.

But what I didn’t forsee — and should have — is that Kat would actually get a major outpouring of support, including publicity from nationally-known web sites like Fark and Instapundit, and an offer of legal counsel from the Media Bloggers’ Association. Bob Krumm also took brilliant advantage of Google search ranking algorithms. The fight isn’t over by any means, but it’s out in the open — which is precisely what her opponents don’t want.

I’ve only been to one blogger meet-up. That’s not by choice; it’s just that a lot of the scheduled activities have been on days when I’ve had to work. But I did attend a meet-up last year sponsored by WKRN in downtown Nashville. I arrived horrifically early, as I often do, and I was wandering the sidewalks of Broadway, looking like a tourist, killing time before heading to the GEC for the meeting. Kat Coble, who’d never met me before, saw me on the street and recognized me from the photo which used to be on my site. “You must be John Carney!” she said, and I was immediately impressed.

I should have known that Kat’s case would attract this kind of interest and this kind of support. For the sake of free expression, for all of us, I hope the news continues to be good.