You’re a “worthless piece of s**t” and a “lonely, jealous old man.”
Those are the words Mayor James D. Kalb of Portsmouth, Ohio directed at blogger Robert Forrey via e-mail.
What sparked the heated exchange? The blogger exercised the Freedom of Information Act to request records on the placement of a playground in a public park an d the involvement of the Kiwanis Club on the project. And the mayor lost his cool, firing off this e-mail at 1:47am.
Without diving into all of the facts of this otherwise boring case of small-town politics, we are curious to hear from you…
Clearly the blogger got under the skin of the politician. But does an elected official ever have the right to lay the smackdown on a blogger? Should the blogger have released the e-mail to the public?
The power of blogging continues to grow, as a basement blogger once again gets the attention of their blog’s subject, and in the process, score national headlines. No matter where you stand on this argument, blogging is a winner.
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The public officer has the right to blast anyone he chooses. He can say whatever he wants to bloggers, reporters and the like, but he’s an idiot to do so. The job of a politician is to get re-elected, and that’s about it. Mayor Kalb may find it exceedingly difficult to win back his mayor’s seat in the next Portsmouth election.
The blogger too had the right to publish the email. The email was addressed to him.
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Providing this is all true, which I don’t see any reason why it shouldn’t be (I do wonder if the blogger has made previous requests or said something at those meetings to sent the mayor off…),
…the blogger, let along anyone has the right to request information including the Massachusetts state budget if they want to and its the mayors job to full that request.
Its also the mayors job (or a clerk) to respond with respect to every request, but while the mayor can respond with full epinion, he shouldn’t, he is going to be in a lot of trouble.
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A public official has the right to post anything he would like, however he/she must remember they are an employee of the state and their actions are not only representative of themselves but americans in general.
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