of the Cook County News-Herald and as a journalist, I strongly believe in the
power of words and accountability for those who publish them. However, I
recently attended the Minnesota Newspaper Association annual convention where
this was a hotly debated topic. There are legal questions - should citizen
journalists who post to a blog under false names be protected under the
reporter shield laws that protect professional journalist? Or is the speech
posted to internet blogs or anonymous newspaper forums already covered under
our nation's free speech laws?
The First Amendment protects freedom of speech—even anonymous free speech. At
the newspaper conference, I learned that precedent was set in the case McIntyre
v. Ohio Elections Commission. The case, which started when Margaret McIntyre
distributed unsigned handouts to attendees at a school board meeting in 1988,
ended with a Supreme Court ruling in 1995. The Supreme Court ruled in
McIntyre’s favor, basing the Opinion on the important role played by anonymous
pamphleteering in the Revolutionary War. The famed Federalist Papers were first
published anonymously.
However, as I wrote in a recent column in the News-Herald, my negative opinion
of anonymous bloggers has not changed. I understand the importance of being
able to speak out anonymously when necessary. Those who took part in the
American Revolution had reason to hide their identity. The anonymous pamphlets
of that era were honorable political protests—not the rabid, rapid-fire,
rhetoric of today.
What do you think?