How not to fight a web war
A New York ad agency, Warren Kremer Paino Advertising, has filed a seven-figure lawsuit against a Maine blogger.
Here's a version of events by the blogger, Lance Dutson of the Maine Web Report; here's the lawsuit; here's media-critic Jeff Jarvis' take; and here's how the Boston Globe reported it.
Even if the complaint has merit -- and from my superficial understanding of the case, at least parts of it are questionable -- is this a smart strategy for any company to take when confronted with a hostile blogger?
A relatively unknown gadfly was irritating the agency and its client, the Maine Office of Tourism. Now Dutson is a cause celebre in the blogosphere, and his allegations about the agency and the tourism department are headed for very wide distribution.
Already, the first Google page in a search for "Warren Kremer Paino Advertising " shows entries from the Maine Web Report, but not the agency's own homepage -- and I'd guess that Google front page is going to get uglier for WKP in the weeks ahead.
The agency and its client look like bullies for trying to outspend and outlawyer an independent writer.
There has to be a better way of handling public relations problems in the age of the blog. Recently, Dave Winer suggested that Dan Rather might have helped himself by blogging back at his critics CBS could have better handled the Dan Rather/National Guard story by covering it, bringing "the blogosphere onto their nightly broadcast in 2004, in the last days of the campaign. Had they embraced the controversy instead of trying to deflect it, just followed the story like any reporter could have done, it all could have come out very differently. They were in a position to learn the power of the blogosphere in ways that weren’t available to NBC, ABC and CNN."
Clearly an understanding of the medium and the blowback it can uncork are critical to doing business these days.
Scoble had some thoughts on a related subject, too: ""I don't think the way you deal with dirty laundry is to get rid of the person hanging the laundry in the public square that way. Deal with the folks who are dirtying up the linen!"
Update: It's worth noting that while Dutson is up against deep pockets and scary lawyers, he's not in it alone: a group called the Media Bloggers Association is helping him. Another wrinkle for companies to consider: you may not be fighting only the individual you target.
