In a recent edition of our #SCMatrix feature, we referenced a lawsuit filed last week in circuit court in Horry County, South Carolina by blogger David Hucks.
The editor of MyrtleBeachSC.com, Hucks believes the mayor of the city – Brenda Bethune – and several others have defamed him.
Does he have a case? Possibly …
We took a mixed view of Hucks’ lawsuit, most of which struck us as little more than petty whining on his part. Seriously … somebody said something mean about you?
Then put your big boy britches on, dude. And deal with it. Don’t tie up the court system because your feelings got hurt.
(Wait … do people still say “britches” anymore? Or “dude?”)
In fairness to Hucks, though, there were at least two specific allegations contained in his complaint that rose above … well … complaining. Which is why we noted in our report how “we can see Hucks’ rationale for pursuing this action.”
Specifically, one of the defendants named in the complaint is alleged to have accused Hucks of taking “hush money from his targets so that he will not write negative articles about them.” In another section of the pleading, a separate defendant allegedly claimed Hucks tried “to extort money from the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce through a proposed advertising contract for $1.5 million in 2013.”
As we noted, “those are some serious, specific claims.” And we are very interested to see them fleshed out.
Anyway, our even-keeled coverage of the lawsuit apparently didn’t go over well in the Hucks’ home. In fact the blogger’s wife – Marlene (Marleny) Hucks – urged her husband to send a link to our report to his attorney, Columbia, S.C. lawyer Tucker Player.
“Please forward this to Tucker,” she wrote in an email to her husband.
Hucks forwarded the content of his wife’s message to us without comment …
Marleny Hucks was apparently upset that our recent news brief recalled this report from last spring in which her husband issued a prophecy calling 2017 the “year of God’s realignment” for Myrtle Beach.
In an email sent to a local businesswoman in December of 2016, David Hucks claimed to receive “supernatural downloads concerning the future” from none other than the Almighty Himself. In one of these downloads, he claimed God had revealed to him that the city’s former mayor – John Rhodes – would die before the end of the following year.
“God is revealing to me that John Rhodes will not live to see the end of 2017,” Hucks wrote.
Rhodes is still alive, incidentally, and David Hucks issued an apology months later for his erroneous prophecy.
Anyway, Marleny Hucks was apparently displeased with our reference to this story – particularly the line we inserted about Hucks “(comparing) himself to Jesus Christ.” Not only that, she wanted to make sure Hucks’ lawyer was aware of it.
“This is the most offensive thing anyone could ever say,” she wrote to her husband. “You never compared yourself to Jesus.”
Did he, though?
We hate to do a Rick James rewind here, but David Hucks absolutely did compare himself to Jesus in his bizarre 2016 prophecy …
What Jesus said of himself has also been true about me: ‘A prophet is not without honor except in his own town, among his relatives and in his own home.’ In humility, I have died to the knowledge of this truth some long time past.
Look … we get that comparing oneself to Jesus has gotten a bad rap in the aftermath of this recent Upstate, S.C. incident, but come on. When you take to your keyboard and hammer out the words “what Jesus said of himself has also been true about me,” it is hard to claim after the fact that “you never compared yourself to Jesus.”
This is especially true when you are telling people that you receive “supernatural downloads” from his Father in heaven.
At the end of the day, Hucks’ bizarre ravings – and his wife’s demonstrably disprovable response to our coverage – will not change the facts associated with his case. Which means they will not change how we cover it.
Nor will the latest kerfuffle change the fact that Hucks – as we have said on many prior occasions – provides a useful and informative alternative voice to the mainstream media establishment along the Grand Strand, which far too often regurgitates the talking points from the region’s corrupt “Tourism Mafia.”
In fact, this news site often finds itself in agreement with Hucks’ perspective on the issues facing the area …
So whatever he thinks of us, that is what we think of him … and it won’t change just because he and his wife have frivolously raised the specter of legal action against us simply for referencing what David Hucks has previously said about himself.
Bottom line? The South Carolina coast represents a big part of our coverage area (see here, here and here). What happens there matters to us, even if we don’t always get it right in recommending solutions to its persistent problems.
Like him or not, Hucks is a player in the Myrtle Beach market … and the outcome of his case will have repercussions on that market.
Which is why we are covering it … and its attendant insanity.
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