The resolution of nothing
Today was the day the local court case Webster v. Albero was supposed to be heard, but it was not. In short, the allegations by Salisbury's police chief against a local blogger were settled in a "non-monetary" fashion instead of having its day in court.
The main issue I wanted to have resolved in this case was just where the line is drawn between news and opinion on the internet. While Albero's website is dubbed Salisbury News, it's prominently noted at the site that it's "opinionated only." Other contradictions of this sort occur when Albero covers local events as a news reporter would and is even given press privileges by some local organizations and newsmakers. (You can see for yourself, I link to the site under "Delmarva Bloggers".)
In general, his site has a number of contributors who vary in quality of writing and usefulness of information. And while he's done some top-notch investigative reporting over the lifespan of his site, Joe is also just as likely to place articles on Salisbury News which don't pass the Snopes smell test. He also has a regular routine of placing up the area law enforcement blotters and other local news releases as a local newspaper would.
A recurring theme, though, is his dissatisfaction with the mayor of the city of Salisbury, Barrie Parsons Tilghman, and her administration. (Ironically, Albero is not a resident of Salisbury but does own property within the city.) Over time, this has turned to a vendetta against all things Barrie Tilghman and led to both the Webster v. Albero civil suit settled today and an upcoming Tilghman v. Albero suit slated for hearing later this summer. Unrelated to these is another court date Albero faces for a perjury charge, as the resident of Delaware is alleged to have falsely claimed Maryland residency in a real-estate deal.
The problem for me isn't with Albero; that just adds a local flavor to the case. A precedent would have been helpful in this brave new world of the blogosphere, and I would have preferred an Albero victory because had Webster's side prevailed it would provide a chilling effect to bloggers who wish to be critical of public figures but aren't anonymous, either by choice or by being outed in the process of running their website. Of course, I also fall into the group of non-anonymous bloggers as opposed to the still-unknown "Martin Watcher" who does O'Malley Watch, a popular blog aimed at broken promises from the Maryland governor.
It should be known though that Albero isn't an angel in this case, as he's made his own threats against those who spoke out against him and his website, including this writer. As a rule I don't go into personal attacks because this site is much more issue-oriented; however, there's been some people I've been critical of in the past and the threat of larger, more powerful entities squelching the freedom of speech rights of smaller ones through threat of personal or financial ruin isn't completely out of the question for any of us. Settling the case leaves a void that anyone can fill insofar as what rights bloggers have to freely speak out.
One thing that has to be admired though is the marketing genius and buzz that's been created for the Salisbury News site, which was prominently featured in the news stories regarding the suit. Albero has also created, by hook or by crook, a cottage industry of sites dedicated to taking him down a notch because of his bombastic style. (Full disclosure: I occasionally crosspost to one such site, called Pro-Maryland Gazette. This post will become an "occasionally" later on today or tomorrow.) On the other hand, there's also a number of "Joeys" who swear by his site as the real news source in town, not the Daily Times newspaper or two local television stations. (The numbers I've found show, though, that Salisbury News only reaches a fraction of the audience either the Daily Times or local television news does - however, that's not uncommon as only about 6% of Americans regularly read blogs. Much larger percentages watch TV news or read newspapers.)
What I truly wanted was a little guidance in defining our media role. The tagline of this site is "news and views from Maryland's Eastern Shore" but my proportions of each are vastly different than what Salisbury News puts up. Unfortunately, having this case settled as it was leaves more questions than answers so I guess I'll keep on doing what I do, attempting to provide insightful commentary on political issues of the day.