2451 The little blog that could

When an internet business blog, Maine Web Report, criticized Warren Kremer Paino Advertising, which advertised with the state's office of tourism, the owner Lance Dutson was sued. He tried to get help from his chamber of commerce and Nancy Marshall of the PR agency for the office of tourism, but

"My local chamber of commerce, where I am a member and vendor, and where I volunteer several hours a week of my time producing their e-newsletter, was one of Marshall’s first targets. The chamber’s website features a ‘member news’ section, and in October I had placed a fairly innocuous story about the pay-per-click campaign there.

Under pressure from Marshall, the chairman of the board of directors decided to not only censor this story, but remove the ENTIRE member news section from the site, and replace it with a blank page."

Portland Press pretty much ignored the story of the harassment of a little blogger business, possibly Lance speculates, because it uses the same attorney that filed the law suit against him. (Remember a few entries back I mentioned "Dance with the one who brought you" in media advertising?)

mock ad by Spittle mocking the Office of Tourism

You can click over to Lance's web report for several entries on this, but to cut to the chase, Media Bloggers Assocation came to his rescue with hundreds of blogs highlighting Maine's heavy handed tactics and offers of legal assistance.

So if you can't get help from your professional organization (are you listening American Library Association) and your elected officials are beholden to the folks you're criticising and your local media can't be brave because they'll lose advertising or are afraid of law suits too, who you gonna call on?

Other bloggers.

Warren Kremer Paino Advertising