As far as I can tell it isn’t even like the original article skirts libel / slander
I really hope he does sue - just so he can be laughed out of court.
Brian
As I understand, he’s already apologized for his tantrum.
I expect this will haunt him for a long time.
“… she embellished, twisted and downright lied about what we discussed…”
The First Amendment is for REAL Americans; not those Socialist Crypto-Fascist Subversive Atheist Muslim Libtards!
I will give the guy support on one aspect of his tantrum. He told her to stop contacting him, and she stated that she heard and understood his request, but will continue to contact him whenever she wishes to.
That is harassment, plain as day. Her journalistic principles do not give her the right to harass someone who does not wish to speak with you.
But he’s a publicly elected official, and she’s a political reporter. If she’s going to do a story about something he said or did in public, don’t journalistic standards require her to contact him to give him a chance to address the story she’s going to publish? Or should she just put “Kirby Delauter told me never to speak to him again” in every article about him?
Right. If the guy’s job is a public position, and thus he is a ‘newsmaker’, he has to accept being contacted by journalists. It’s part of his job. If he doesn’t like the job, he can quit. Of course he can always pull a Marshawn Lynch act and answer ‘Yeah’ or ‘Thank you for asking’ to every question. 
I don’t care what she puts in her story. If a person says they don’t want you to contact them again, you should respect that. If that makes it harder to do your job, that’s your problem, not theirs.
She wrote an article that he thought was a shitty hit piece, and he doesn’t want to deal with her again professionally or personally. I think he has the right to do that.
Actually, no he does not. There is no “right to not be bothered”. Especially when, small-time though it is, he is a public official. Goes with the job. Her attempts to contact him are perfectly in line with her job as a journalist, and for him, having to deal with reporters is perfectly in line with his job as a political figure.
Then he can decline when she contacts him. But it is her job as a political reporter to contact him when a story involves him.
Does that mean he has to accept attempts to contact him from anyone who purports to be a political journalist? Can I follow him around, track his every move, attempt to interview him at his other place of work, at the dry cleaner, out to dinner, knock on his door whenever I please?
I’m totally a Frederick County political blogger, and need to interview him about an important story.
He knows that she is a political reporter. Thus, I’m ignoring your straw man.
I see his request as a blanket decline for any story she may write that involves him. Contacting him about future stories, to me, is comparable to calling him for comment on a story he’s already declined to comment about.
The business about contacting him was very much a secondary issue - the issue that he threatened a lawsuit about was the “unauthorized” use of his name.
So you’re saying that yes, she should put “Normally, journalistic standards would require me to contact Mr. Delauter to ask if he wanted to comment, but he instructed me in January 2015 to never contact him again.” in any story involving him?
He complained about both actually.
Attention all Straight Dope Moderators!
i do not wish to be warned or advised in any thread I participate in. Let this serve as a blanket decline of further attempts to contact me.
Now that just seems silly, now doesn’t it?
True - I fixed my post to correct my error. He threatened the lawsuit only about unauthorized use of his name, though.
This is the disgusting, slanderous attack she made on him in her original article:
[
](Shreve raises staffing, parking concerns)
Can you believe her nerve? And people say there’s no liberal bias in the media.
Well that slope just slipped down the well.
No, being a public official does not mean you have to accept people asking you questions while you’re in bed at 3:00 am.
But being a public official does mean you have to talk to the public. You can not tell anyone, journalist or not, that they are not allowed to contact you during normal business hours when you are on duty. It’s part of your job.
Luckily, it appears he’s not listed as an attorney in the Maryland bar listings. (I wouldn’t be shocked if he were, but it’s better that he isn’t.)
I submit that the fact that he removed the Facebook post indicates he figured out what he said was idiotic.