WebProNews » Robert Cox

Google Complains About Censorship Charge

WebProNews Staff — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 23:58:51 +0000

After blowing away ads aimed at criticizing MoveOn.org by name, Google’s public policy wonks fired back and asserted that trademarks, not politics, played a role.

Readers may recognize the name ‘Lance Dutson’ from our coverage of his battles against an ad agency over its business with the state of Maine (see here and here.)

Dutson emerged in the news again, this time as an advocate for Maine’s Republican Senator Susan Collins. Robert Cox, head of the Media Bloggers Association, wrote in The Examiner of Google rejecting Dutson’s ads about MoveOn.org:

The banned advertisements said, “Susan Collins is MoveOn’s primary target. Learn how you can help” and “Help Susan Collins stand up to the MoveOn.org money machine.” The ads linked to Collins’ campaign Web site with a headline reading “MoveOn.org has made Susan Collins their #1 target.” The Collins Web site claims that MoveOn has contributed $250,000 to her likely Democratic opponent and has run nine ads against her costing nearly $1 million. The Web site also displays MoveOn.org’s controversial “General Betray Us” ad.

An expert on intellectual property disputes cited by Cox sided with Google’s rejection of the ads, but called the rejection, "troubling." Google policy counsel Pablo Chavez said on the company’s always interesting Public Policy blog the company did not reject the ads on political grounds:

Some time ago, MoveOn.org submitted a request to Google that its trademark not be used in any ads, and as a result our advertiser support team offered instructions on how Senator Collins’ campaign could edit and resubmit its ad.

Any company or organization — regardless of political affiliation — could do what MoveOn did and thereby prevent advertisers from running ads that include their trademarks in ad texts. And that’s very important. The ad in question could have said that MoveOn.org was great, or even just so-so, and our policy would have resulted in the same outcome; Google would have asked the advertiser to drop the trademarked phrase.

Chavez also dismissed Cox’s claim of the company running other trademarks in ads without a problem. "If ads are running on Google that include trademark terms in their text, either the trademark owner has not submitted a complaint, or the advertiser has been authorized to use the trademark," he said.

Cox posted a response on Google’s Public Policy blog, exhorting the company to change its policy. "There is no basis in trademark law to support MoveOn’s claim," said Cox.

AP To Wire Libby Bloggers To Readers

WebProNews Staff — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 22:15:05 +0000

As a pair of bloggers take their media seats in the highly visible Scooter Libby trial in a Washington federal courtroom, it has been learned that the Associated Press will carry the bloggers’ trial coverage.

Gaining access to media credentials for a closely watched sensational trial in the Nation’s Capital was a nice accomplishment for Robert Cox and the Media Bloggers Association. Even better, their bloggers taking part in the media coverage will have their message distributed beyond the blogosphere.

The Association announced today that AP will distribute Media Bloggers’ take on the proceedings through AP’s wire service. The news comes just as the opening arguments in the perjury trial against Libby begin.

Cox hailed the decision by AP to carry Media Bloggers’s coverage, and called it a “milestone in the emergence of grassroots-generated journalism.”:

“The AP’s decision to redistribute MBA-bloggers’ coverage of the Libby trial to its members websites means that bloggers’ coverage of the trial will be available to the readers of more than 600 newspapers’ websites nationwide and around the world,” said Cox.

“This is a great step forward in the relationship between news bloggers and the mainstream media.”

A dozen bloggers will rotate through the trial, and provide their accounts of what happens on their blogs and on the Media Bloggers’ website. Cox told WebProNews previously that the first two bloggers to use their media credentials would be James Joyner from Outside The Beltway and Murray Waas from Crooks and Liars.

Contrary to what conventional wisdom might suggest, Cox also said in an email that there had been no overt expressions of ill will toward bloggers by the representatives of the mainstream media that he has seen. This is despite two bloggers gaining media credentials that would normally have landed in the hands of established media reporters.

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David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.

Joyner, Waas To Blog Libby Trial

WebProNews Staff — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 15:11:18 +0000

The first two credentialed bloggers to gain access to a federal trial should begin their blogging next week, after Media Bloggers Association president Robert Cox wraps up his voir dire (jury selection) coverage.

James Joyner from Outside The Beltway and Murray Waas from Crooks and Liars will take two of the one hundred seats allocated to mainstream media when the Scooter Libby trial begins. That should start next week, according to Cox.

In an email to WebProNews, Cox noted he was covering the voir dire process. A post on his personal blog, Words In Edgewise, described what Joyner and Waas, and the bloggers to follow them, can expect in the federal courthouse:

The room set up as a media center is ideal for a blogger. There is a widescreen television displaying four feeds from the video camera – the judge, the witness box, a crossshot of both and the lawyer’s desks. The Wifi worked perfectly and I was online within a minute of getting into the room.

My plan is to be here this week to make sure that the bloggers that follow behind me have a good sense of what to expect when they arrive at the courthouse. Later I will write up a “protocol” document to share with all of the bloggers. The good news is that we get real chairs, room enough on a long table to work with a laptop, powerstrips and, of course, the WiFi. I would show you a picture but…well…they took my camera.

Recording devices are not permitted in the courtroom, as US District Judge Reggie Walton decreed in the rules of order for the case. Violating that means a likely contempt sanction from the bench.

Likewise, bloggers and other media types have to keep their credentials available, because the US Marshals may ask for them at any point. Cox said in his blog that the ones they have received are the only ones they will physically get, and if they are lost, so is access to the courtroom.

Call them bloggers, citizen journalists, or anything else, the accomplishment of gaining media access to what will be a heavily covered trial is quite a feat. Just as people follow the events of the trial, other bloggers will watch what Joyner, Waas, and others do in the setting. Get ready for some strong opinions from the blogosphere about that.

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David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.