Informed Comment Received a cease and desist letter

Informed Comment Controversy:

Juan Cole, in Informed Consent (his great blog about the Middle East), apparently wrote about the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI). They responded with a message, from which he has quoted:

"we demand that you retract the false statements you have made about MEMRI. If you will not do so, we will be forced to pursue legal action against you personally and against the University of Michigan, which the article identifies you as an employee of. We hope this will not be necessary."

On the one hand, I think this is the way things ought to work. If an organization thinks it has been wronged in a blog, it has the right to ask for a retraction. The author of the original blog text then has the choice of retracting the offending comment or not. Threatening legal action would seem to be a common tactic in such letters, and I think the legal system is the right place to go if the parties can not agree through direct discussion.

I am unsure of the responsibility a university might have for the comments written in a blog by a university employee. I assume the threat is empty, and that the university does not appear to have editorial control over Cole's blog. Faculty members have academic freedom protecting them from censorship of their off-campus publications.

The larger question is whether libel laws and legal procedures protect us in the blogsphere. I think of them as designed for publishers of newspapers and books, or television and radio. These organizations have deep pockets, legal staffs, and the capacity to defend themselves against libel charges. But would the average blogger have that capacity? I doubt it.

I don't think that a blogger has the right to make false charges, but I question whether what law should apply. Is a false charge on an individual's blog more like slander than libel? Some blogs are very widely read, some are logs of thoughts of the blogger with very little dissemination. Should these be treated alike, or should the law distinguish between the two. Some blogs are controlled by corporations, some by private citizens. Should they be treated the same?

Does anyone out there know what the law says about legal recourse to and legal responsibility for false claims in the blogosphere?