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  1. #1
    Sooner All-Big XII-2-1+1-1+1 Mazeppa's Avatar
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    Western Michigan booster’s wife sues message board trolls

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    Posted by Joe Lucia on Feb 7, 2015 09:00

    Bonnie Zeigler, the wife Western Michigan booster Aaron Ziegler, is suing three men for $25,000 each over claims that they ruined her reputation. What makes this suit so noteworthy*is that the three men are being sued (Bruce Bendix, Dan Burgardt, Randolph Foster) because of “false and defamatory” comments that they posted on CSNbbs.com.
    That’s right – the wife of a booster is suing message board trolls.
    The comments that caused Zeigler to sue took place in a thread dedicated to firing WMU coach P.J. Fleck, who is 9-16 in two years at the school. The trio of commenters apparently made claims about Zeigler sleeping with Fleck, which they eventually retracted.
    All three of the men*have some history with Western Michigan. Bendix played football at the school in the 1970s before moving on to coaching, eventually getting elected to the Michigan High School Coaches Hall of Fame. Burgardt used to write for Rivals, covering Western Michigan football. Foster is an alumnus of the school, and called the posts, “message board nonsense”. Burgardt had a similar response.
    “From my perspective, you had 11 people who were initially on that complaint and they basically had heard a rumor which apparently had been talked about in the community and they were talking about whether they believed it or not,” Burgardt said. “Some of them believed it, some of them didn’t. My position on it is I didn’t believe it and I gave some snarky examples of why I believed it wasn’t true.”
    What a bizarre, interesting situation. The three man were identified and later sued after their addresses, email addresses, and IP addresses were eventually acquired from the website. If the suit actually ends up heading to court rather than being settled outside of court, I’m very curious as to what will end up happening. If the suit ends up being successful, this could end up opening the floodgates for future lawsuits spurred by online comments.

  2. #2
    SoonerFans.com Elite Member Jacie's Avatar
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    Re: Western Michigan booster’s wife sues message board trolls

    Thus keeping the court system and litigious law firms in business for decades to come and that's just from fodder already available.

  3. #3
    SoonerFans.com Elite Member swardboy's Avatar
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    Re: Western Michigan booster’s wife sues message board trolls

    We're doomed!
    "I'm going to request that you stop posting in this thread." - circa 2008
    "Why does there have to be so much immature stuff on here?" - circa 2010

  4. #4
    SoonerFans.com Elite Member KantoSooner's Avatar
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    Re: Western Michigan booster’s wife sues message board trolls

    Interesting legal questions. Consider how the same would be treated if the conversation had been held in a bar. Or at a PTA meeting. Or in a public hearing of some sort. Do nominally private chat boards get the same treatment as comments to the pages of an on-line newspaper? Is there a legal presumption that everything on the net is total BS and thus anything goes?
    In my view overly litigious, but obviously not in hers.
    "I don't know karate, but I know ka-razor!" - James Brown

  5. #5
    SoonerFans.com Elite Member
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    Re: Western Michigan booster’s wife sues message board trolls

    Quote Originally Posted by swardboy View Post
    We're doomed!
    God, I would be afraid of what could happen just from the Fark Forum alone...
    Everything progressives do is aimed at weakening democracy, capitalism and the social and cultural institutions that support those things...... They are about subjugating people and being a ruling class.

  6. #6
    SoonerFans.com Elite Member KantoSooner's Avatar
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    Re: Western Michigan booster’s wife sues message board trolls

    Yup.
    My suspicion is that some sort of line will be drawn to segregate fora that have expectations of serious intent vs those that do not; and that, in the interests of freedom of speech, places like this one are defined as places where people 'know or should know' that all sorts of spurious BS is being trafficked.
    "I don't know karate, but I know ka-razor!" - James Brown

  7. #7

    Re: Western Michigan booster’s wife sues message board trolls

    Why is a message board not open to libel or slander? I always forget what the difference is between to two, I'm sure at best only one would apply. It's easy to say don't believe what you read on the internet, but let's face it, most people do. I have no doubt she was put in many uncomfortable situations due to the "chat".

  8. #8
    Sooner All-Big XII-2-1+1-1+1 Tear Down This Wall's Avatar
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    Re: Western Michigan booster’s wife sues message board trolls

    Quote Originally Posted by IamBigRed View Post
    Why is a message board not open to libel or slander? I always forget what the difference is between to two, I'm sure at best only one would apply. It's easy to say don't believe what you read on the internet, but let's face it, most people do. I have no doubt she was put in many uncomfortable situations due to the "chat".
    Libel is print; slander is spoken.
    "General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"
    President Ronald Reagan at the Berlin Wall, June 12, 1987

  9. #9

    Re: Western Michigan booster’s wife sues message board trolls

    Ridiculous.

  10. #10
    SoonerFans.com Elite Member
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    Re: Western Michigan booster’s wife sues message board trolls

    Half the posters on LT better get fitted for orange jump suits.

  11. #11
    SoonerFans.com Elite Member
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    Re: Western Michigan booster’s wife sues message board trolls

    Quote Originally Posted by BoulderSooner79 View Post
    Half the posters on LT better get fitted for orange jump suits.
    is it a coincidence that LosuR and the txcows both chose orange for one of their school colors?
    Put a lid on it! Kiss it goodbye. We gave it away, and apparently thought it made sense to do so.

  12. #12
    Sooner All-Big XII-2-1+1-1+1
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    Re: Western Michigan booster’s wife sues message board trolls

    Much ado about nothing. We were having the same conversations, concerns, worry 15 years ago, when I was a mod. This is about as close as I've seen to having some meat behind it, because its individuals that are in a position, where they say something on a message board like that, they're probably considered "in-the-know" and their words do some damage in a smaller community.

    She might get somewhere with hers, but opening flood gates? No. Heard that threat from people thousands of times, "I'm going to sue! slander! defamation! etc!"

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