Kirby Delauter, Kirby Delauter, Kirby Delauter

[Stoatwobbler]

From America. A shining example of how not to do media relations

 

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150106/07302329607/maryland-politician-says-local-paper-cant-use-his-name-without-permission.shtml

 

All Frederick County (MD) Councilman Kirby Delauter knows is that he doesn't like unfavorable press. Literally, that appears to be all he knows -- at least as far as press relations go. He apparently believes that he holds the power to decide whether his name appears in print, rather than the other way around. Delauter blew off a phone call from Frederick News-Post writer Bethany Rodgers seeking comment on a story and then turned around and called her out on Facebook for using his name without permission.

 

The post has since been deleted by Delauter, but the image will live on forever... as will Delauter's inability to comprehend how journalism actually works.

 

Now, Delauter's name is everywhere (including this Kirby Delauter-deluge of an editorial by the newpaper hit with Delauter's legal threats). His first mistake was assuming he could control it. His second was to broadcast his ignorance via a public forum. And, unless he's willing to go the full Rakofsky, the internet is going to keep "using his name unauthorized" without having to worry about "paying for an Attorney."

 

And here's the Editorial in response

 

http://m.fredericknewspost.com/news/politics_and_government/kirby-delauter-kirby-delauter-kirby-delauter/article_da85d6f4-fa3c-524f-bbf6-8e5ddc0d1c0a.html?mode=jqm

 

Knowing Councilman Kirby Delauter as we do, we weren't surprised that he threatened The Frederick News-Post with a lawsuit because we had, he says — and we're not making this up — been putting Kirby Delauter's name in the paper without Kirby Delauter’s authorization. Attorneys would be called, Kirby Delauter said.

 

In fact, we spent quite some time laughing about it. Kirby Delauter, an elected official; Kirby Delauter, a public figure? Surely, Kirby Delauter can't be serious? Kirby Delauter’s making a joke, right?

 

Round about then, we wondered, if it’s not a joke, how should we now refer to Kirby Delauter if we can't use his name (Kirby Delauter)? Could we get away with an entire editorial of nothing but “Kirby Delauter” repeated over and over again -- Kirby Delauter, Kirby Delauter, Kirby Delauter? OK, imagine we agreed because of temporary madness or something funny in the water that week, how would we reference "Kirby Delauter" and do our job as journalists without running afoul of our lack of authorization?

 

Blanks? Sure, we sometimes use hyphens in the case of expletives. Perhaps we could do that: "K---- D-------." Or, perhaps, "Councilman [unauthorized]." We giggled a bit more than we should have when we came up with "the Councilman Formerly Known as Commissioner Kirby Delauter," which doesn't seem as funny written down in black and white and includes his name, which defeats the point. Maybe we should just put his initials, "KD," with an asterisk to a footnote (KD*), or refer to him as GLAT, the acronym for his campaign: "Govern Like A Taxpayer." We could even make it sound a little hip-hop with a well-placed hyphen: G-Lat. Speaking of, could we get away with "K-Del"? Or we could simply go with the Harry Potter-esque "He Who Shall Not be Named." (Cue the lightning strike and peal of thunder.)