Fetzer v. Wright
Posted May 25th, 2009 at 8:47 AM by Jeff A. TaylorLook, I got no dog in this fight and certainly do not know the facts of the matter but…
It strikes me as exceedingly counterproductive to combat email rumors with a full-blown legal assault, an act which demands that news outlets cover and report on the slander at question, thereby repeating and amplifying it many times over.
I do not understand why Tom Fetzer is suing Curtis Wright for forwarding the email in question, but not the author of the email. There is “anonymous” email and then there is the reality of email headers which forensic data recovery can pin-point. Are we to understand that Fetzer and/or his attorneys attempted this already and failed?
I do not understand this statement by Fetzer: “The fact that I am heterosexual is a matter of public record.” Not to be glib, but is there a license or certificate program that I am unaware of? How can there be a “public record” of private conduct for anyone, anywhere?
But more than anything this dust-up tells me that there is a sickness deep within the Republican Party in North Carolina that will not soon be healed. What was once a party of ideas is now a collection of special interests, boiling resentments, and stunning mediocrity.
Update: Filling in one blank, it seems the claims originated in an anonymous letter as opposed to an email, rendering my forensic approach moot. I think.
May 25th, 2009 at 9:05 am
Senator Larry Craig comes to mind. Fetzer should just shut up and the whole mess will go away.
May 25th, 2009 at 1:44 pm
Fetzer’s response is the most homophobic reaction to being accused of homosexuality I’ve ever see.
May 25th, 2009 at 4:15 pm
The NCGOP Chair race was clean and above board until Fetzer and his machine elbowed their way in. They are the ones who started the smears (against grassroots/liberty favorite Chad Adams).
Here’s my favorite quote from Fetzer so far:
http://projects.newsobserver.com/under_the_dome/fetzer_stephens_to_exit_political_consulting
“We don’t want to do campaigns anymore,” said Fetzer. “We’re old men and this is a young man’s game.”
May 29th, 2009 at 12:37 pm
I agree it’s overblown. Yet if this is the most you’ve ever seen Adam, your experiences are pretty limited.
Some people just don’t like other people getting into their personal business, particularly making comments that are not true. If they find the attack to also be morally offensive, many fight back. Had the email said he was having an affair and he was fighting back mad, nobody would be putting hate labels on the man.
What if he is gay and just denies/resents being outed. I’m only postulating for the purposes of asking if that still makes him a homophobe to those who like to toss around such slander themselves.
What I find most curious is that the email was meant to be derogatory in the mind of those who sent it. They were obviously using it as the digital version of pointing the finger and calling, “homo”. He resents it, but who is the real bigot in the politically correct world?
The lawsuit probably doesn’t stand a chance. But part of it depends on the exact nature of the content, who it was sent to, and the obvious intent of those sends. Those that pass along defamatory information can be and are often held to just as high a standard as the originator. Anyone recall Dan Rather?