Blogger threatened by lawyer

Christian Crumlish

I'm too busy this week to keep up with all the juicy weblog gossip and topics du jour, so I'll just point you to Rogers Cadenhead's coverage at his Workbench blog of this emerging story:

Atrios, the pseudonymous publisher of the liberal political weblog Eschaton, has been contacted by the attorney of National Review contributor and weblogger Donald Luskin, who warns that "further legal action" will be taken if weblog entries and user comments about Luskin are not removed:

You recently linked to Mr. Luskin's October 7, 2003, posting on his website entitled "Face To Face With Evil," in which he chronicles his attendance at a lecture and book signing presented by Paul Krugman. You chose the unfortunate caption "Diary of a Stalker" for your link. More importantly, your readers, in responding to your invitation to comment, have posted numerous libelous statements regarding Mr. Luskin. Picking up on the theme you introduced, several have made false assertions that Mr. Luskin has committed the crime of stalking. Such a statement constitutes libel per se, an actionable tort subjecting both the author and the publisher to liability for both actual and punitive damages.

Atrios has written entries critical of Luskin on Oct. 7 and Oct. 10, which of course makes him responsible for anything anyone else wrote about the incredibly thin-skinned Luskin on his Web site.

He's been called a stalker by Paul Krugman and Glenn Reynolds also, so read them now before Luskin spends thousands of dollars to scrub the Web clean of figurative insults. [Workbench]