We're Getting Sued by a Newspaper for Defamation

Yes, you read that right—a newspaper, which exists solely because the First Amendment protects free speech—is suing to suppress free speech.

We think Gregg Walker’s problems started long ago. We don’t know this to be fact, but we suspect the history goes something like this:

Gregg’s dad owned the Lakeland Times and became rich when people actually read newspapers. Having grown up with everything handed to him on a silver platter, Gregg never worked very hard nor did he develop the intellectual curiosity needed to adapt to a changing world, knowing he would inherit his father’s wealth and stature and remain a big fish in a very small pond.

Unfortunately, however, the world indeed changed and the once-profitable newspaper business became obsolete. Walker started losing his father’s money and because money was the only thing that he had going for him, he got scared.

And when spoiled rich guys get scared, they lash out.

“Why are you letting Kirk beat you up on Facebook?” his wife probably asked him one morning. “You own a newspaper. I married you because you were rich and owned this town, and now you look weak. You need to do something. Show me you’re not weak.”

So Gregg, presumably needing to save face for his wife and the rest of OBNOM (the Old Boys Network of Minocqua), decided to sue Kirk for defamation.

Fortunately in Wisconsin and in The United States of America, you need to provide a little bit more evidence than “he called me names” to win a defamation lawsuit.

Unfortunately in Wisconsin, we don’t have Anti-SLAPP laws. SLAPP stands for “Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation,” which is an “all-too-common tool for intimidating and silencing criticism through expensive, baseless legal proceedings.”

Anti-SLAPP laws would protect the Minocqua Brewing Company from rich bullies (like our favorite misogynist publisher) from bleeding us dry in expensive litigation. They would allow us to countersue for the cost of defending ourselves with expensive first amendment lawyers. But Wisconsin doesn’t have them.

But what we do have is you, the public.

If you despise bullying as much as we do, and don’t think the judicial system should be used as a weapon for the rich to intimidate people they don’t like, we’re going to ask you for a favor. We need to raise some money for a legal defense fund, much like we did when we asked you to buy t-shirts after hanging our Biden sign up and being threatened with daily fines by the Oneida County Board until we took it down.

Our lawyer tells us that if the judge in Oneida county doesn’t throw out this lawsuit, it could cost us up to $60K to defend ourselves.

This time though, since many of you already bought t-shirts, we’re asking you to help us by buying a commemorative poster or sticker.

The picture we’re using for our artwork is Gregg Walker’s face mashed up into Alfalfa’s (from the Little Rascals) body.

We figured we’d be efficient and both raise money to defend ourselves from this bully and remind the world how foolish he is at the same time.

If you feel like standing with us against this bully, please go to this link to purchase items from our SLAPP Legal Defense Fund Collection: