Asshole Of The Week: The Des Moines Register's Kathy Hickman

Welcome to Asshole Of The Week, where every Friday your trusty Foul Balls editor picks out the one person from the previous seven days who makes him think, "Man, what an asshole." It could be anybody from an athlete, an owner, someone in the media, or just anybody who happens to catch my ire.

I know, I can already see all of you asking yourselves, "Who in the hell is Kathy Hickman?" Relax, give me time, I'll explain the entire thing to you.

When I woke up this past Sunday morning afternoon after spending the previous night at a wedding, I noticed something not quite right in my bedroom. Okay, so the first thing I actually noticed was the throbbing in my head, no doubt brought on by my extreme appreciation of an open bar at the reception.

After that, though, I looked at the clock radio next to my bed to see what time it was. The screen was blank, so I grabbed my glasses off the desk so I could see the time on the cable box across the room.

There was nothing there either. Apparently I had just slept through what was one bad ass storm during the early morning hours that had left trees strewn about the streets of my neighborhood, and thousands of people in Chicago without power. I was pretty pissed off about it, because as someone who makes a living by watching sports and then writing about them, I generally need electricity.

Still, I quickly got over it. I just said to myself, "Relax, brah (I talk to myself like a frat boy), at least you don't live in Iowa. At least your house isn't underwater. Just chill out, read a book, and hope for the best before going into work (I then went to work a few hours later only to find that the power was out there as well)."

I won't go into the devastation that hit in Iowa, Wisconsin, and other parts of the midwest last weekend, because that's not what this post is about. While I feel sorry for all those who've lost everything due to the storms, we're here today to crown an Asshole Of The Week, and I'm just not sure Mother Nature qualifies.

Besides, Mother Nature is more of a bitch than an asshole. She's not really trying to hurt you, it's just her disposition.

Anyway, on Sunday of this week, Adam Jacobi (whom I work with over at FanHouse) of Black Heart Gold Pants, a fantastically brilliant Iowa Hawkeyes blog, wrote a post about the floods in Iowa and the damage they caused. In the post he also included links to places where those who felt so inclined could make donations to help those affected by the flood, and for the cleanup.

Adam also posted a video he found that was shot by the Associated Press using a helicopter's view to show the destruction in and around Iowa. That's when he got this email from the Des Moines Register's Kathy Hickman.

It has recently come to the attention of the Des Moines Register that you have improperly posted a video, the rights to which are held by The Register. A copy of your unauthorized use can be found at www.blackheartgoldpants.com/2008/6/15/552422/the-flood.

As the copyright owner of that video, The Des Moines Register has the exclusive right to its reproduction and distribution. We therefore ask that you immediately remove the posted article from your website and cease any and all further use of the material. Any continued posting or use will be considered willful copyright infringement.

Within 24 hours of your receipt of this email, you should reply to this message by confirming that: 1) each and every posting of Des Moines Register material has been taken down and 2) you will not engage in any further unauthorized copying of Des Moines Register materials.

If you do not take the steps outlined above, this matter will be turned over to our attorneys for further action.

Wow, let's sue the poor blogger for trying to help raise money for flood relief. What kind of selfish prick would do such a thing!?

Now, while a newspaper threatening to sue a blogger over posting a video is probably enough to warrant serious AOTW consideration, it cannot win on it's own. No, there has to be a blatant amount of stupidity involved in it as well.

Thankfully, there was! Here's a picture of the video that Adam lifted from the paper's site. See if you notice anything.


Do you see it? I even enlarged it for you. There's a god damn embed code with the video. You know, the same kind of embed code you include with a video so that other websites or blogs can post it themselves? Yeah, one of those.

So the Des Moines Register was threatening to sue Black Heart Gold Pants for doing something they gave them the capability of doing. That's like going to war with a country over nuclear weapons you sold them! Who does that?

Now, as it turned out, after this story broke across the blogosphere the guys at BHGP sought out an explanation about this from the Register, and they did in fact get this response from the paper's Assistant Managing Editor Chris Snider.

This was a misunderstanding. I apologize on behalf of The Des Moines Register. Simply an employee trying to do their job but not completely understanding our new technology (we recently got embed code on our videos). I take full responsibility for not making this clear to everyone on staff.

Problem solved. Still, for being stupid enough to threaten a lawsuit against a blogger for doing something you allowed him to do, Kathy Hickman is our AOTW. Given the fact she spends her days in Des Moines searching out blogs that stole videos from the paper she works for, this is probably going to be the greatest honor she ever receives.

Congratulations, Kathy.