Has this experience scared people from tellng the truth about scams.
Yes, I think this and other "basher" suits have made people nervous about whistleblowing. And I think that's a pity. Some caution is a good thing: it's best, and only fair, to qualify your statements, and not to make blatant accusations you can't offer proof for. Our not-friend Pugs, ardent AZNT fan, doesn't hesitate to bash individuals he doesn't like, and his favorite means of doing so is to allege that they have "ties to organized crime". This sort of thing just won't do.
Irresponsible bashers are as bad as irresponsible hypesters. But we DO need people willing to do some digging and come up with real facts that they can present to doubtful company management and to the general public. As the Web grows, this becomes easier and easier. Needless to say, the "doubtful compaany management" in question isn't very happy about that: in the past they've had free rein to tell their "investors" pretty much what they wanted to tell 'em. Now, between new reporting requirements and online watchdogs, there's the chance they'll be asked to account for the (frequently grandiose) claims that they make. And they're pissed off.
But they're gonna have to live with it. The Web makes it soooooo easy to get a scam up and running, as we of FBN have tried (without actually scamming anyone) to demonstrate many times. A corrective to this is necessary.
Quite a number of "basher" suits have been brought recently. Most are frivolous, in my view. Unfortunately, one point that's not clearly made in the press about them is that most of the companies who resort to this have very real problems that have in no way been "caused" by online critics.
I think that in the next six months or a year, many of these suits will fail, for one reason or another. From that point on, plaintiffs will be more careful in choosing their targets. I heartily applaud those who move against genuinely destructive idiots with an agenda: cretins like Pugs who couldn't research their way outta a paper bag, employees with a grudge against the boss, and the like.
But there's a need for the rest of us, and I hope we won't be intimidated out of existence. |
