SR: Suit shows value of media

SR Editorial Board comments today:

What if newspapers and broadcast outlets suddenly vanished?

One answer is that people would volunteer to fill the breach with blogs, websites and social media. And that might go along fine until some offended party with deep pockets filed a lawsuit. Good luck fighting back without an attorney or the wealth needed to absorb a possible defeat.

Many citizen journalists would become former journalists.

Small newspapers already face this threat. Just ask the owners of the Malheur Enterprise in Vale, Oregon (population about 1,900). A state agency sued the small weekly newspaper over its request for public records. The Enterprise, which covers Malheur County, just west of the Idaho border, has a circulation of about 1,400.

It also has a publisher who wasn’t inclined to back down. Still, Les Zaitz, a longtime journalist, had to start a legal defense fund to cover the $20,000 needed to join the legal battle. More here.