Ken Auletta, Arianna Huffington, Peter Daou, and Mark McKinnon after a 2008 panel
Peter Daou first came to my attention via Twitter, where he is routinely mocked by snarky journalists. A former advisor to Hillary Clinton and John Kerry, Daou is now a commentator and activist who founded the group/hashtag #HillaryMen. He is also a former member of the Lebanese Forces, a Christian militia organized during the Lebanese civil war. In a post on his personal blog this morning, Daou announced his intention to sue for defamation various unnamed Twitter users who have accused him of complicity in the Sabra and Shatila massacre of 1982. Daou describes his war experience as extremely traumatic, saying that he never killed anyone and was conscripted against his will. He has publicly condemned the Sabra and Shatila massacre and contends that tweets related to it were meant to defame him in retaliation for his support for Hillary. The big question, in this brave age of social media, is whether tweets can constitute defamation in the same way as broadcasts and publications from media outlets. Daou thinks so, but his case is complicated. Examples after the jump.