Columnist Threatens to Sue Blogger

floppy ears writes "Pseudonymous blogger Atrios has been threatened with a subpoena and lawsuit for defamation. Apparently Atrios used a headline 'Diary of a Stalker' in reference to Donald Luskin. In response to the posting, several anonymous commentators made some allegedly libelous statements about Luskin, and now Luskin has hired an attorney and started making threats and demands. The funniest thing is that Luskin has previously referred to himself as a stalker in his own headline: 'We Stalked. He Balked.'."

Comments

Re:I've read about this controversy.

[rsidd]

Luskin posted Krugman's book tour dates on his site, suggesting to his readers a different coloured pie to throw at each date.

So who's the "literal" stalker? I also read the Krugman interview transcript, it seemed pretty clear to me he was using "stalk" in the dictionary sense (follow purposefully and stealthily) not in the legal sense.

Re:What a royal pussy!

[efflux]

As Luskin is a public figure, to sue atrios, his lawyers will have to not only show negligence of fact, but also that actual malice was intended.

Now, as usual, IANAL, but I'm questioning how atrios can be held accountable for *other* posters' comments, especially when considering the demands of proving actual malice.

Fuck Luskin.

More detail.

[Wntrmute]

A great explanation of the full story is here, which should make it much easier to follow for people who don't read these particular blogs regularly.