Independent
Voice of the
Ford Community since 1998.
19 January 2001
Robert
Lane
Ford Motor Company has dropped their federal lawsuit against BlueOvalNews with the end result being that Web sites may now publish confidential material and trade secrets from company documents with case law offering First Amendment protection - the very same protection that other forms of media enjoy.
Many people believed that BlueOvalNews would be sold to Ford Motor Company, but that's not the way free people strengthen their Constitutional rights. . .a person is either for Free Speech or they are not. There is no middle ground. BlueOvalNews will remain a web site published independent of Ford Motor Company and will continue to publish material that reflects the interests of Ford consumers and enthusiasts. We are; however, interested in working with Ford to provide a wider range of information that would be beneficial to the growing online Ford community.
We agreed to certain provisions of a permanent injunction - but this injunction will have little or no impact on the type of material that we publish. BlueOvalNews will continue to publish articles from Ford's internal documents that are of a public interest; although, it might bring us back to U.S. court as Ford might object to what constitutes information that is of a "public interest". One provision that we did NOT agree to was the return of ANY internal Ford documents in our possession. BlueOvalNews will not return any document to Ford, now or ever as protecting our sources is of the utmost of importance to us.
I am aware of the criticism leveled at me, justified or otherwise, but because of it, I have learned that with the right to publish comes a responsibility. The wholesale publication of a companies documents is bad for journalism because it weakens the public support for the First Amendment and more. I want to thank Ford Motor Company's Jim Cain and Attorney Hershel Fink for pointing that out to me.
I also want to thank the many journalists and members of the media for supporting and taking interest in covering our fight with Ford Motor Company. Above all, I want to thank BlueOvalNews' attorney C. Mark Pickrell who, despite the odds, successfully argued alone against at least a half dozen of Ford's best and won. Minutes before court started on the first day, Mark misplaced some paper work - Ford Motor Company's lawyers openly laughed at his momentary despair. . . .they are not laughing any more.
Related material:
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by BlueOvalNews attorney C. Mark Pickrell
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