First Amendment Fun

Yesterday we held a mock oral argument of four historic First Amendment precedents, with students from two sections of UNR's media law class arguing both sides.

Vasoline Does It Right (But That's Not an Endorsement)

Ever since the Federal Trade Commission issued its "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising," with its specific guidelines for disclosure of compensated reviews and endorsements by bloggers, I have been writing about questionable advertising campaigns that appeared to run afoul of the rules.  (I have also been criticizing the rules themselves, and the disparate treatment of traditional and citizen media.)

So I was interested to see a New York Times article on a new advertising campaign by Unilever's Vasoline brand for its Vaseline Intensive Rescue skin cream. 

Intentional Grounding: Can Public Colleges Limit Athletes' Tweets?

(cross posted at the Citizen Media Law Project)
An exercise we did Friday at Univeristy of Nevada, Reno's High School Journalism Day raised an interesting legal question: can a public university restrict its students' use of social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter?

My Moment in the [Kitsap, Washington] Sun

I was quoted over the weekend in an article in the Kitsap[, Washington] Sun on a trial in which potential jurors were asked whether they have ever blogged about violent crime.

http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2010/oct/30/lawyers-in-sk-murder-trial-asking-would-be-if-on/