Councilman Kirby Delauter of Frederick County, Maryland lashed out on Saturday at a reporter for using his name in an article without his permission.I have a few words for Kirby Delauter. Mr. Delauter: you are an asshole. You do not even have Louie Gohmert's distinction of being an entertaining asshole. Your attitude makes me sorry I live on the same planet with you... but most of all it makes me grateful you do not represent me in any government body. You are just an asshole, no more,
In a Facebook post, Delauter slammed reporter Bethany Rodgers of the Fredericks News-Post "for an unauthorized use of my name and my reference" in an article over the weekend.
"So let me be clear," he continued, apparently addressing Rodgers, "do not contact me and do not use my name or reference me in an unauthorized form in the future."
Rodgers responded, telling the council member that reporters are not required to seek a public figure's permission before using his or her name.
Delauter responded with a threat: "Use my name again and you'll be paying for an Attorney [sic]."
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(See linked post for a screen-grab of the FB exchange, and a photo of an asshole.)
This is one the Supremes have danced on. Not only does a reporter NOT need a public figure's permission to use said public figure's name in news reporting, said reporter cannot even be sued for what he said about the public figure, even if what he said was inaccurate, as long as there's no provable actual malice. That whole 1st Amendment freedom of the press thing, yo. This moron Kirby Delauter would be laughed out of court if he attempted it.
ReplyDelete'Tux, exactly; that's the only way the First Amendment could possibly be effective, and that's how it's been read by the Court from the earliest First Amendment cases. I don't know if Delauner is a Tea Bagger, but they are equally nuts in their assertions that they know the Constitution and no one else does... baggers might be more accurate if they claimed they know the Constitution as no one else does.
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