Diaz made two claims against PubliCola.
First, he claimed that we maliciously reported a “false rumor” when we mentioned the existence of a rumor reported in a series of KUOW stories, which Rantz and Diaz discussed in their interview. (We removed this reference, which we originally noted because Diaz and Rantz spent some time discussing it).
Second, Diaz said he never claimed that being gay is a defense against sexual harassment allegations by women, and that we said he did. According to Diaz’ attorneys, the former police chief actually made “the opposite point,” by noting that it’s possible for gay men to be “misogynist.”
“You also write that, during his interview with Jason Rantz, Adrian repeatedly ‘returned to the idea that gay men can’t sexually harass or assault women,'” Diaz’ attorneys wrote. (This is one of the phrases we edited, as described above.) “That’s also false. In fact, Adrian highlighted the opposite point during the interview, saying, ‘You know, just because you’re a gay man doesn’t mean you can’t be a misogynist.”