UPDATE: Brian Glicklich managed to file his Anti-SLAPP suit against Carol Wallin, so the article below reflects the court information available at the time. I'll publish more information as it becomes available.
They just don’t get it.
How did Rush Limbaugh manage to pick a “digital strategist and crisis manager” as uncivilized and as hateful towards women as Limbaugh himself? You would think a crisis manager would focus on repairing a broken reputation, but Brian Glicklich of How Handy Is That LLC instead chooses to double down on Limbaugh’s disrespect of women by stalking and harassing them online, and engaging in Scientology-style lawyering and intimidation tactics.
For months, Mr. Glicklich spewed threats on Twitter including accusations of theft, lying, and intent to contact StopRush volunteers' employers. Not satisfied with his bizarrely unprofessional and shameful attacks, Brian Glicklich has taken the battle into real life.
One woman was treated to a late night unsolicited phone call from Mr. Glicklich, who interrogated her about her activities and about other women associated with the Limbaugh protests. He blocked his number but happily took ownership of it on his twitter feed where he demanded the recipient of the call answer her phone.
Mr. Glicklich availed himself of another intimidation technique favored by bullies; the DMCA violation report. He filed no less than 4 DMCA violations and used one report as an excuse to post one StopRush' volunteer's home address on Twitter again and again over three days. This violation of Twitter terms of Service led to his first suspension.
Glicklich’s techniques have not gone unnoticed by Twitter itself, which has terminated his account access four different times for his anti-social behavior and targeted harassment of women. Of course, he’d like you to believe the system has been gamed against him, but it is Glicklich who is attempting to exploit Twitter’s shortcomings in dealing with abuse. It was Mr Glicklich who tried to "game the system" when his attorney sent a letter to Twitter's In-House Counsel that can only be described as self-serving & disingenuous.
Twitter rose to the challenge. Dick Costolo, CEO of Twitter, has made it clear the service is aware of their troll problem and intends to end this kind of abuse. Mr Glicklich's letter, sent after his third suspension did nothing to save him from a fourth (and hopefully, permanent) suspension after a weekend of committing the same infraction that had gotten suspended the previous three times: repeatedly posting the personal and private contact information, including name, home address, and members of the household, of a StopRush volunteer.
“We're going to start kicking these people off right and left and making sure that when they issue their ridiculous attacks, nobody hears them,” said Twitter CEO Dick Costolo, in an internal memo published by The Verge. Mr. Costolo has been true to his word.
Unsatisfied with the results of his harassment and doxing, and AFTER he had been suspended three times for violating Twitter Terms of Service, Mr. Glicklich once again chose to violate a StopRush volunteer privacy by publishing a woman’s address four times, in a effort to encourage his followers to stalk and harass her at her home. Harassment against her was so severe, she was admitted to a hospital, terrified, for observation for several days.
Overwhelmed by the threats and harassing communications she received, and concerned for her family's safety, she felt compelled to file for a restraining order against Brian Glicklich to end the harassment. After careful consideration, Mr. Glicklich’s target decided it would be safer for her household to take a short vacation away from home while things cooled down, and dismissed her TRO application without prejudice.
Although Glicklich was never served, he showed up in court with an extensive (and expensive) counter motion prepared by his real estate attorneys, which the court immediately rejected.
While most civilized folks would take the hint their behavior was anti-social and inappropriate, Glicklich appears to have no soul or conscience to keep his obsessive and perverse actions in check.
And this is the problem with the Rush Limbaugh Show itself: over the past thirty years, Limbaugh has created a culture of hate and incivility in the United States, in which bullying anybody who doesn't share your opinion is not only acceptable, but encouraged.
It is tragic that Mr. Glicklich sees nothing wrong with his creepy stalker activities, and shows even more how Limbaugh and his ilk are completely removed from reality and even the basic fundamentals of how to behave in civilized society. Mr. Glicklich's actions are akin to watching a spoiled child throw temper tantrums over and over when they don't get everything they want.
When I was a kid, Republicans and Democrats disagreed on many things, but they still afforded each other the common courtesy of behaving in a civil manner. In the eighties Rush Limbaugh arrived on the scene, and paved the way for politics to become more of a spectator sport in which you chose a side, and you hated your political rival.
It is time to end this Culture of Hate in America. Reject Hate Radio and bullying, and let's work together to replace hate with rational discourse and put an end to the political insanity.