Robert Cox is the Founder and President of the Media Bloggers Association.
Cox's career in citizen journalism has been marked by a series of "firsts". When The New York Times brought legal action against his blog in 2004, Cox was among the first bloggers to receive a legal threat related to a blog, the ensuing reaction resulted in one of the earliest "blogstorms". In 2006, Cox negotiated the first-ever blogger media credentials for a federal court, securing press passes for two dozen MBA members to cover the "Scooter" Libby Trial. In 2008, he became one of the first bloggers made into a museum exhibit when The Newseum recognized his work on Libby by including him in their citizen media exhibit. In 2008, Cox helped create the first ever online course in media law for bloggers and the first ever media liability insurance program for bloggers.
Cox blogs and twitters regularly and currently manages several group blogs including The Ruckus, a group blog of more than three dozen MBA members produced in partnership with Washington Post Newsweek Interactive and published on Newsweek.com. Cox has written for traditional news outlets including Newsweek, The San Francisco Chronicle, The New York Daily News, Congressional Quarterly, The Washington Examiner, and The Fort Worth Star-Telegram. In 2006, Cox helped developed the Poynter Institute's Guide to Ethics in Online Journalism and served on the sub-committee for User-Generated Content which issued its final report in 2007.
Two years in the making, Cox played the lead role in a series of major initiatives launched in 2008 and designed to provide bloggers access to the same sort of legal and financial resources long available to traditional media organizations. The MBA worked with the Citizen Media Law Project, which is jointly affiliated with Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society and the Center for Citizen Media and City University of New York's Graduate School of Journalism, and Poynter Institute's News University to create an an online course in media law to teach bloggers the basics of defamation, copyright and privacy law as it relates to online publishers. The MBA created a network of 75 attorneys in 20 states to provide bloggers immediate access to specialized lawyers who can provide an evaluation of risks and costs associated with specific allegations and offer some general advice regarding how to respond to allegations of defamation, copyright infringement, and privacy violation. Under Cox's leadership, the MBA worked with Media/Professional Insurance to create BlogInsure, a first of its kind liability insurance program for bloggers which provides coverage for all forms of defamation, invasion of privacy and copyright infringement or similar allegations arising out of blogging activities.
Cox regularly takes an active role in defending MBA members from legal harassment by arranging legal support and managing coordinated blog/media campaigns. In 2008, Cox led the MBA response in a copyright case brought by the Associated Press against Rogers Cadenhead, owner/operator of The Drudge Report web site. In prior years, Cox played a key role in cases involving The New York Times/Maureen Dowd, the State of Maine's Department of Tourism, The Tulsa World newspaper, Oprah Winfrey and many others.
The MBA is a non-partisan association of bloggers dedicated to promoting, protecting and educating its members, supporting the development of blogging or citizen journalism as a distinct form of media and helping to extend the power of the press, with all the rights and responsibilities that entails, to every citizen. The MBA was founded by Cox and 30 other bloggers in 2004 originally to serve as a form of "mutual-defense pact" for bloggers to push back against legal threats facing bloggers. From those early days, the MBA has evolved into the leading legal advocacy group for bloggers in the United States with plans to expand internationally in 2009.
The MBA has led the way in gaining access and privileges for bloggers normally reserved for members of the traditional press as well content distribution deals. In 2006, Cox obtained approval for bloggers to be credentialed as media by the U.S. Judiciary. In 2007, 22 bloggers were credentialed through the MBA for the "Scooter" Libby Trial at the U.S. District Court in Washington, DC. Later that same year the MBA managed blogger credentialing for two U.S. presidential debates (the Democrats at Howard University in DC; the Republicans at Morgan State University in Baltimore). Since then the MBA has worked on "blogger credentialing" for numerous organizations including the LPGA, Gannett, the Newspaper Association of America, the American Society of Newspaper Editors as well "blogger access" deals for movie screening with film companies, review copy programs with book publishers and other "access" deals. In addition to The Ruckus, Cox has created numerous media partnership deals for bloggers. Cox packaged blogger coverage of the Libby Trial for the Associated Press which distributed MBA member content to over 750 news web sites across the United States.
Cox has been widely recognized for his work on citizen media. In 2005, he was nominated for an international Freedom Blog Award by Reporters without Borders & Deutsche Welles for his work creating Radio Free Nepal blog (the MBA was also nominated that year). His work in obtaining media credentials for bloggers to cover the "Scooter" Libby Trial earned him a prominent placement in the "We Media" exhibit at the newly-opened Newseum in Washington, DC. His article "The best test of truth" on Oliver Wendell Holmes for The Fort Worth Star-Telegram's "American Voices Series" which was nominated for the American Bar Association's Silver Gavel Award in 2006. Cox sits on a number of citizen media advisory boards including NewAssignment.net, Newstrust, Center for Media and Public Policy at The Heritage Foundation and others.
Cox makes frequent public appearances to discuss journalism and new media in the context of blogging and citizen journalism. He has made speaking appearances at the Knight Center for Specialized Journalism, the National Press Club, the John F. Kennedy School at Harvard University, the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School, the First Amendment Center, the National Archives, the University of North Carolina's School of Journalism and Mass Communications, the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland, the University of Pennsylvania, the Knight Center, Penn State University, USA TODAY University, Johnson & Johnson Consumer Products, Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceuticals, USC Annenberg School for Communication and many other leading non-profit organizations, universities, and corporations. He has addressed the National Conference of Editorial Writers, the Society for Professional Journalists Annual Conventions in Chicago and DC as well as various local SPJ chapters, the Radio Television News Director Association/NAB Convention in Las Vegas and various local RTNDA events, the Association of Opinion Editors and many other journalism-related groups. Cox is regularly quoted by the press and has appeared on numerous radio and television shows including MSNBC, Fox News, CNBC, BBC, NPR and CBS Radio and has been featured in stories in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The New York Daily News, Online Journalism Review, PBS.org and many other news publications.
Cox, who first began blogging in 2002, gained notoriety as a blogger in 2004 when the New York Times sought to shut down his blog, The National Debate, over his parody of The Times' columnist correction policy. In what was one of the earliest "free speech" cases involving a blog, Cox prevailed and applied his experience to what later became the Media Bloggers Association. In 2004 and 2005, Cox received international recognition for his work organizing the MBA's Tsunami Video Hosting Initiative through which the MBA served up millions of streams of video of the Christmas Tsunami shot by bloggers around the world in partnership with major web content providers such as Mirror Image and The Washington Post. In 2005, Cox organized BlogNashville, the largest gathering of bloggers at the time - 400 bloggers attending dozens of events, spread over three days at Belmont University and Vanderbilt University in Tennessee.
Prior to attending business school at the University of Chicago, Cox worked on Wall Street. Since graduating from the Chicago GSB, Cox has provided strategy-consulting services to leading companies in North America, Europe and Asia. Cox spent three years creating and running a venture-financed startup Internet business and continues to consult to technology start-ups and serve on their corporate boards.
Cox received his B.A. from the University of Notre Dame and his M.B.A. from the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business. He currently resides in New Rochelle, NY with his wife, an Associate Professor at Columbia University, and their four children.
