Rick Feldhoff brought up some good points, and i'd like to add my $.02:
 
>From what I understand, E-mail lists have few if any laws which can be
>directly applied to them and our politicians are going to be hard-pressed to
>correct this deficiency in the near future. The exceptions to this generality
>seem to be transmission of things like child pornography or copyrighted
>software.
 
This may be changing. A few weeks ago I posted an article from the Chronicle
of Higher Education regarding a professor in Australia who won a defamation
suit prompted by things said about him in Internet mail. I'd predict an e-mail
lawsuit going to court on these shores within the next 2-3 years, if not sooner.
 
> Why is Tony's rumor regarding a high school players intellectual abilities
>different from all the rumors about coaches applying for jobs or rumored to
>be unhappy with this or that?
(snip)
>How is it that we can defame referees and question players lack of effort or
>natural abilty or pass judgements on coaches intent and apparent personality
>defects without really knowing that person or his values?
 
There seems to be an unwritten "kid glove" code when taking about pre-college
athletes, and Cavanaugh may have felt that Tony crossed that line. Once while
working at the Boston Herald during college, I was writing a high school
roundup and wanted to use some verbs and adjectives which I thought fit in
with the paper's aggressive (some say sleazy) style. My editor said, "Hey,
when these kids are in college, you can lay into 'em all you want, but now
they're high school kids, so be kind, for cryin' out loud."
 
> it seemed to me to be inappropriate to give "for your
>own records" Andy Power's actual combined SAT score. Why is this not an
>invasion of privacy? How did Cavanaugh come by this data and did he obtain
>Power's permission to post it to Hockey-L? I believe MC's intentions were
>noble, but in his effort to correct a perceived "rumor crime" he may have
>made things worse, but then again, that is just my opinion!
 
To the best of my knowledge, SAT scores, like grades, are confidential
information and may only be released with the permission of the individual.
When I want to nominate a Carthage student-athlete for CoSIDA's Academic
All-America Teams, I must first get the kids' permission to put their GPA's on
the nomination forms. And these are the *smart* kids!
 
>Are we a public forum or are we a group of colleagues sharing facts and
>rumors.
 
 
Hmmm...good question. And not one I'll venture to answer.
 
 
greg