Maryland county official recants threat to sue reporter for printing his name without his permission
A Maryland county official who threatened to sue a newspaper reporter for publishing his name without his permission has had a change of heart.
Frederick County Councilman Kirby Delauter now says his threat was “wrong and inappropriate,” the Frederick News-Post reports.
“Of course, as I am an elected official, the Frederick News-Post has the right to use my name in any article related to the running of the county—that comes with the job,” Delauter said in a statement to the newspaper Wednesday.
Delauter also posted an apology on his Facebook page to News-Post reporter Bethany Rodgers, whom he had threatened to sue, to the newspaper and to all of his constituents “for disrespecting the journalists and media outlets who cover the Frederick county government.”
The councilman faced widespread ridicule earlier in the week after threatening to sue Rodgers for using his name in an article without his permission.
“Use my name again and you’ll be paying for an attorney,” he told her in a Facebook comment.
The rant went viral, generating an avalanche of newspaper articles and mocking messages on Facebook. The News-Post also published a defiant editorial with the headline “Kirby Delauter, Kirby Delauter, Kirby Delauter,” that used his full name more than 20 times.
Delauter, in his apology, said the experience had taught him a valuable lesson
“I thought I had long ago learned the lesson of waiting 24 hours before I hit the send key,” he said, “but apparently, I didn’t learn that lesson as well as I should have.”
