Vlogger Ron Coons V. John Wayne Oliphant Jr

Have you heard about the January 31, 2007, libel suit that Nashville, Tennessee, USA-Vlogger Ron Coons filed against "John Wayne Oliphant Jr., a staff lawyer for the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development"?

I hadn't either until I read about it in an Associated Press article published in the March 19, 2007, edition of the Knoxville News Sentinel. See "Internet postings prompt libel lawsuits."

I also read about it in Nashville Tennessean staff writer Christian Bottorff's March 15, 2007, article headlined "Web libel cases increasing locally." The Tennessean provides a link to "Coons' lawyer's letter to Oliphant" and a link to Oliphant's response.

According to the Media Law Resource Center (MLRC), Coons sued Oliphant, Jr. "over a [December 2006] message sent via the Evite invitation service and a MySpace page which alleged that he had drugged young women at parties. In his answer to the law, Oliphant claims that the challenged statements are either true or protected opinion."

The MLRC keeps track of "Legal Actions and Developments Involving Blogs."

By the way, the opening paragraph in the Tennessean staff writer's article and the AP's seem to be identical. I've e-mailed Bottorff about this.