The Manassas Journal-Messenger has an odd, somewhat worrisome, story about a lawsuit filed by would-be GOP House of Delegates candidate Steve Chapman against the blogger who goes by the name Black Velvet Bruce Lee.
Chapman’s spokesman, Faisal Gill, is blaming a lawsuit against the blogger for distracting Chapman from filing in time to run as the GOP candidate for the 50th House district in Manassas, where he had garnered 45 percent of the vote last fall in his race against incumbent Harry Parrish, now deceased.
If Chapman’s campaign team failed to meet the filing deadline, Chapman has every reason to be irked — at his campaign team. But that’s an issue between them.
Of greater concern is the behavior of Black Velvet Bruce Lee. The Chapman campaign accuses the pseudonymous blogger of making numerous defamatory comments — charging that Chapman dropped out of high school, lied about his pressure-washing business having contracts with Arlington National Cemetery, that sort of thing — that Chapman’s people insist are untrue. At some point — the article isn’t clear — either Chapman or the campaign filed suit against the blogger.
But Black Velvet Bruce Lee melted into cyberspace. Says the Journal Messenger:
Recently, Black Velvet Bruce Lee took the blog Web site down, eliminating all of the former Web postings. He also discontinued his e-mail address and essentially disappeared into cyberspace. “Either he feels like he accomplished his mission and he took the site down. Or he’s afraid of the lawsuit and doesn’t want the evidence to be out there, so he got rid of the evidence,” Chapman said.
While Black Velvet Bruce Lee may be gone, one of his compatriots, Manassas resident Greg Letiecq, has resurrected the blog. Letieq says Chapman’s lawsuit is baseless.
I have know idea who is telling the truth, and I have no interest in sorting through the claims and counter-claims. That’s a job for the courts. What’s disturbing is that a blogger can create a visible public forum, make accusations and then evade legal accountability for those accusations. This kind of behavior could lead to punitive legislation against the blogosphere.