Eater LA assailed over blind post *

The food blog owned by the Curbed chain ran a litany of damaging, specific accusations against Downtown wine bar The Must attributed to an unidentified "tipster." The owners, talking to LAT blog The Daily Dish, call the accusations "completely false," demand the post be stricken and raise the possibility of legal action. Eater LA says, so far, "We've offered them the chance to respond here, with the response of their choice reprinted in full with no editing, but so far, they've demurred. Further updates as events warrant."

* Really?: Lawyer Ben Sheffner, formerly with O'Melveny, NBC Universal and the McCain campaign, blogs that Eater LA has nothing to worry about legally even if the tip itself was libelous, giving his opinion that "Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act provides virtually airtight immunity from defamation suits for web sites that re-publish material provided by others."