Skank: Defamation or Opinion?

Where do you draw the line between opinon and defemation & libel? Model Liskula Cohen is asking a New York court to force Google to reveal the identity of the anonymous blogger behind “Skanks in NYC“. 

The site is composed of exactly five posts, all aimed at snarking at Cohen, with images that had to have come from friends or friends of friends. All of the pictures were of Cohen, with friends or at a small party with what looks like close friends. Maybe Cohen should be trying to track down where those photos came from rather than trying to get the courts to force Google to reveal anything? 

The court itself isn’t giving any indication as to which way they will rule. 

“…convincing a judge to unmask the blogger might prove difficult, because courts often protect Web users’ right to remain anonymous online. While there are exceptions for libel, it’s not clear whether the posts in this case would qualify. That’s because only facts can be defamatory, and the statements at Skanks in NYC might be deemed opinions rather than facts.” [source]

To me, this looks like a straight up case of cyberbullying. Many of us have been on the receiving end of these trolls, but we haven’t taken the perpetrators to court. 

Cohen is claiming that she’s had potential jobs bring this site up and question whether or not she is an appropriate representative of their product. If that’s really the case, the brands questioning her really aren’t looking closely at this site. It’s obvious to anyone paying attention that this is a blatant attempt to bully Cohen. 

I googled Ms Cohen to see if this apparently libelous site even had any Google juice whatsoever, and all that came up were references to this law suit and to one from last year when she made headlines because a bouncer alledgedly threw a glass (or glasses. It’s unclear) into her face, apparently disfiguring her. 

This lawsuit, put together with the headlines she made last year from the suit over the bouncer incident makes me wonder if this, like the porn industry asking for a federal bail out, isn’t just another PR stunt. A way to keep her name in the news in order to garner interest in her (perhaps flagging) career. Every article I’ve been able to find called her an “ex-Vogue” model. You don’t see working models with actual contracts being called that, even if they have graced the cover of the iconic magazine. 

It’s time for Cohen to find a new career I think. The model thing seems to be over, and her new choice of professional plaintiff isn’t exactly going gangbusters.