Well, I’m trying to finish stuff up before heading off on vacation. But for those who were kind enough to fire off emails, I thought I’d give a final update on the Post’s pilfering of the name of this site for their own online, DC-based, politics column. I finally heard from washingtonpost.com’s Executive Editor Douglas B. Feaver yesterday. Their line, in essence, is: it’s a common phrase; others have used it; you have no claim to it; we’ll keep using it for Terry Neal’s column. Some good points, a lot of misleading and off-point points. But there you go.
I was going to respond to the letter and then I saw that it had been sent out from a specially-prepared ‘dummy’ email address ‘points@washingtonpost.com’ — in other words a virtual trash-bin designed to prevent anyone from actually responding to the person who sent it, etc.
Meanwhile, Terry Neal told several people that he’d received ‘literally hundreds of emails’ about this. And today he devotes his column to answering reader email. But apparently he was too afraid to publicly address the point or respond to any of your mails in his column. So what can you do?
Just now I see that Neal is sending out a mass-mailing to everyone who wrote in to him. He includes the letter Feaver sent me and then also a copies an email back and forth between me and a third party. (In other words, I have an email back and forth with person A. Person A forwards the back and forth to Terry Neal. Terry Neal mass emails it to hundreds of people.) Needless to say, without permission.
Here’s my two cents on this: A number of lawyers have offered their services to me pro bono on this matter (offers I sincerely appreciate). They tell me my case would actually be pretty good, though certainly no slam-dunk. But I don’t have the time or the resources to get into a legal tussle with the Post, in which they could, these same lawyers have also warn me, inflict a lot of damage. But frankly I’ve never seen this as a legal matter. Just a matter of doing the right thing or the wrong thing. Neal’s stunt with the email captures the larger point: Is there a legal problem with doing that? No. Is it cheesy, low-class behavior? Yep.
Anyway, I’ve said my piece. Thanks as always to the regular readers of this site. Your support of this site in all forms is greatly appreciated. Now I’ve got to go pack fishing gear.
