Three Reasons Michelle Shouldn't Sue
Go here to catch up, and here for the update. Ace thinks she should sue. I don't, because:
I. Her case might fail on one element. While the malice behind these postings is manifest, I don't think Michelle has sustained any actionable injury. They ran a photoshopped pic of Michelle's head on a (disproportionately huge) bikini-clad body and said it made her a hypocrite for criticizing the out-of-control skankiness of Charlotte Church.
Let's assume that I was dumb enough, as they were, to believe that Reuters-reject photoshop was real, and I believed that Michelle Malkin did, in fact, wear a bikini in March, 1992. So what? It doesn't prove their point. You can wear a bikini in your home (as in the picture) or on the beach and still not approach the same galaxy of skankazoidal creepitude that was ascribed to Church.
Malkin: Charlotte Church has transformed from a really neat kid with a beautiful voice for sacred music into a sacrilegious foul-mouthed guttersnipe.
Wonkette, et. al: Well, you once wore a bikini. So HA!
So: even if the picture were real, the only thing it would prove is that Ken Layne, Eric Muller, and the Gawker's Nick Denton are logic-impaired morons. Since it was so obviously fake, it also proves they are extremely dense logic-impaired morons.
II. Michelle produces informative reporting and informed analysis in several different media at a scary-productive rate. I'd hate to see her lose momentum while she pursued a lawsuit against these morons. There are some affronts I can imagine would require her to step away and sue. But I think her time and mental faculties can be put to better use.
III. Finally, while Professor Muller has acted like a complete buffoon, he has at least had the decency to say so. He apologized and admitted he fell for the hoax. I think he's been humbled, and I don't think there is much to be gained by humiliating him further or going after his job. As for his use of state resources to post this blog entry, well, I'm not necessarily against professors being allowed to blog, even on the State's wires.
After all, had that prohibition been in effect, blogger and University of Michigan Professor Juan Cole might be a professor at Yale now.











