North Carolina's newspapers have pretty good legal protection.

Thanks to the efforts of the N.C. Press Association, our inestimable attorneys and the willingness of a few big papers and TV stations to bankroll legal fights, our state has few bad precedents in state courts for the kinds of judgements that make journalism difficult.

Blogging could change all that. As the saying goes, everyone's a journalist now, but not everyone has the same financial and institutional backing as a daily newspaper reporter.

That could hurt bloggers who get sued, but it could also hurt everyone else who wants to be a journalist (including Dome). A single poorly fought lawsuit can result in a judgement that is wielded against everyone else and eventually becomes precedent.

What should bloggers do about this? Dome recommends they get familiar with this information, which provides some instruction on the state's case law. But more could be done.

Dome has two suggestions: Creating a North Carolina media law wiki site to answer libel questions in plain English and starting a N.C. Bloggers Association parallel to the press association. A third idea — adding bloggers to the press association — might be a tougher sell.

Add your two-cents here or on your own blog and send us a link.

U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx says bloggers need protection.

The Banner Elk Republican is one of 34 cosponsors of the Blogger Protection Act, a bill that would protect bloggers from Federal Election Commission regulations.

Two years ago, the FEC ruled that bloggers' rights to free speech should not be overriden by campaign finance laws and that blogs should be treated like other publications.

The bill, whose chief sponsor is Texas Rep. Jeb Hensarling, would make those rulings a federal law.

"We must not leave the First Amendment rights of bloggers in the hands of the Federal Election Commission," Foxx said in a statement. "Bloggers’ rights are too important to leave them to the whims of a panel of federal regulators."

The bill would not affect online contributions to candidates, but it would allow bloggers to linkt o campaign Web sites. 

Foxx is the only North Carolina representative among the co-sponsors.