Outed blogger Rosemary Port blames model Liskula Cohen for 'skank' stink

[mellowdrama]

From the New York Daily News.
http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/2009/08/23/2009-08-23_outted_blogger_rosemary_port_blames_model_lisku la_cohen_for_skank_stink.html

Outed blogger Rosemary Port blames model Liskula Cohen for 'skank' stink
By George Rush
DAILY NEWS GOSSIP COLUMNIST
Sunday, August 23rd 2009, 5:32 AM

Sorry seems to be the hardest word for the blogger who anonymously scorned a model as a "ho" and a "skank," igniting a legal and media maelstrom.


Speaking out for the first time since a court order forced Google to reveal her identity, blogger Rosemary Port tells the Daily News that model Liskula Cohen should blame herself for the uproar.

"This has become a public spectacle and a circus that is not my doing," said Port, whose "Skanks in NYC" site branded the 37-year-old Cohen an "old hag."

"By going to the press, she defamed herself," Port said.

"Before her suit, there were probably two hits on my Web site: One from me looking at it, and one from her looking at it," Port said. "That was before it became a spectacle. I feel my right to privacy has been violated."
The pretty 29-year-old Fashion Institute of Technology student added that she's furious at Google for revealing her identity, so much so that she plans to file a $15 million federal lawsuit against the Web giant.
"When I was being defended by attorneys for Google, I thought my right to privacy was being protected," Port said.

"But that right fell through the cracks. Without any warning, I was put on a silver platter for the press to attack me. I would think that a multi-billion dollar conglomerate would protect the rights of all its users."
In her suit, she'll charge Google "breached its fiduciary duty to protect her expectation of anonymity," said her high-powered attorney Salvatore Strazzullo.

"I'm ready to take this all the way to the Supreme Court," Strazzullo said. "Our Founding Fathers wrote 'The Federalist Papers' under pseudonyms. Inherent in the First Amendment is the right to speak anonymously. Shouldn't that right extend to the new public square of the Internet?"
"I feel proud to live in a country where you're not persecuted for your opinions," Port said. "That right has to be protected.

"Even though people are now taking shots at me on the Web, I believe those people have a right to their opinions - and their anonymity," said Port, who is slated to appear on ABC's "Good Morning America" tomorrow.
A Manhattan Supreme Court judge forced Google to unmask Port, rejecting Port's claim that blogs "serve as a modern-day forum for conveying personal opinions, including invective and ranting" and shouldn't be regarded as fact.
The surprising decision, though, seems to have only increased the bad blood between the two women, who knew each other from Manhattan's fashion scene and reportedly quarreled after Cohen badmouthed Port to her ex-boyfriend.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/2009/08/23/2009-08-23_outted_blogger_rosemary_port_blames_model_lisku la_cohen_for_skank_stink.html#ixzz0P2oU2gLW

There is a page 2, go the the link to find it. Tiresome and sad. I support the blogger, BTW. If you can't anonymously call someone a "skank" on the internet, all is lost, I believe.

[LUXXX]

I don't even know who this model is...I saw her on Campbell Brown and she mostly let her lawyer do the talking, for obvious reasons.

[saann]

I can't believe this even went to court, what a waste of money

so silly

and the blogger was right, noone knew about that blog and the model only brought attention to it by doing this

[Label Basher]

From what I read the blogger was bad mouthing her all over town and the blog made it worst. I must have read the article wrong then.

In a way you have to admit that eveyone has the right to go out and have a good time and not be judged by someone you hardly know. Most people wouldn't like that. I wouldn't like someone calling me a hag on the internet either.

Re article I laugh whenever I a reporter writes something like "the pretty 29-year-old Fashion Institute of Technology student".

We don't need to know if she is pretty. It's not like they would write "the plain or ugly 29-year-old Fashion Institute of Technology student". Its so Rita Skeeter.

[Urban Stylin]

she deserved it, am glad her neighbours and friends all know what kind of person she is behind the screen. Sometimes we make really harsh comments online due to the anonymous status it gives us I think an online personality gives us the true picture of what is really inside someone!

[Echoes]

There's a limit to the freedom of expression bit. Stating an opinion of your dislike for someone once or twice is one thing. Engaging in a smear campaign of repeated attacks is another.

I don't see how she has any grievance against Google. They didn't just volunteer the information willingly, they complied with a court order.

[Echoes]

This really isn't anything new and it isn't going to go away anytime soon. There are some other cases noted at the bottom of this story:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/08/21/o...ers/index.html

There was a recent case in Canada also:

http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2...s-posters.html

And this one:

http://housingdoom.com/2009/04/03/ml...ymous-posters/

[mamasarollingsto]

I don't see how she has any grievance against Google. They didn't just volunteer the information willingly, they complied with a court order.

Agree entirely. They didn't just out her.

[silk skin paws]

Gossip blogs should take note I guess. This case isn't surprising. The internet isn't anonymous everyone likes to believe it is.

[smartarse]

it only got serious when Port posted "personal" photos of the said victim on her blog... imo

ETA:
"personal" photos meaning , either Port or a friend took a picture of Liskula having fun.