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Column: Did “Paulding 1st” violate the law with their recent ad?

The following article is an editorialized opinion piece that reflects the views of the author only and not necessarily those of AllOnGeorgia.

Pro Roof GA

The following article is an editorialized opinion piece that reflects the views of the author only and not necessarily those of AllOnGeorgia.

This election cycle has been bad as far as negative campaigning goes. On Tuesday things may have taken a turn for the worse. The negative ads got downright nasty and then lawyers got involved.

In recent weeks, a newly formed group that calls themselves Paulding 1st has arrived on the political scene over the last few weeks. You may remember the meeting they had a few weeks ago. AllOnGeorgia looked into Paulding 1st and, according to the Georgia Secretary of State website the registered agent is Geof Hutton, who is no newcomer to Paulding politics.

Paulding 1st

On Tuesday, Paulding 1st released a video through various outlets on social media and sponsored a robocall to Paulding voters. Among the outlets the video went to was the Paulding County Uncensored Facebook page. The video garnered a lot of comments and shares. As the video went viral through various Paulding Facebook groups, it drew some praise and a lot of criticism, depending on which side of the airport debate you fall on. You can view the video for yourself below.

The video eventually caught the attention of Fox 5 I-Team reporter Dale Russell and his legal team demanded the video be taken down from Paulding County Uncensored. AllOnGeorgia reached out to Stormy Curtis, the owner of Paulding County Uncensored, regarding the distribution of the video and she said: “That video was provided to me by a sponsor and it has been removed because Dale Russell contacted us to do so.” AllOnGeorgia emailed Mr. Russell for comment but as of publication time, he has not replied. We also placed a call to Mr. Hutton and he did not return our call.

The issue here seems to be “fair use” which is defined as: the doctrine (in US copyright law) that brief excerpts of copyright material may, under certain circumstances, be quoted verbatim for purposes such as criticism, news reporting, teaching, and research, without the need for permission from or payment to the copyright holder.

What are your thoughts? Did the political ad go too far? Let us know in the comments.

 

Matt Lowe was born in Helena, Montana and grew up in Austell, Ga. He attended South Cobb high school and Chattahoochee Tech. He is an avid outdoorsman. He lives with his wife and 7 children in Dallas, GA. If you’d like to follow more of Matt you can find him on Instagram and Facebook.

5 Comments

5 Comments

  1. Cathy Helms

    May 17, 2018 at 9:30 pm

    I watched Dale Russell’s report he NEVER said those commissioners lied. About over the negativity and ugliness, but it’s not the first time I’ve seen it from the very same people. Thank you for this opinion piece. I can’t wait for Wednesday morning. I’m praying people see through this and realize these are all lies.
    Thank you AOG, for staying with this.

  2. Sherri Hardy

    May 18, 2018 at 2:22 am

    I was saddened to find that in Paulding county we still have these folks trying to make us lose our quality of life by using these deceitful practices . Once again understand :It’s the People who don’t want a COMMERCIAL Airport !
    We have repeatedly tried to vote them out of existence yet here they are – another futile attempt to lie and cheat their way to office .
    We aren’t as dumb as they seem to think .I hope Wednesday morning they wake up to the Headlines “ incumbents retain their seats” and i hope they pack it in and go lie to someone else somewhere else .
    Thanks for all the interviews and reporting you’ve offered throughout this election season .You’ve been fair and helpful

  3. Dennis Heaton

    May 18, 2018 at 8:04 am

    He needs to do a followup on TV about this, to push back against this type of dirty and dishonest politics.

  4. Dina Sudan

    May 20, 2018 at 12:51 pm

    Dale Russell and the attorneys should put a nail in Paulding 1st coffin. No one should be allowed to get away with twisting an actual news report to unfounded accusations. Geof Hutton should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

  5. Joy

    May 21, 2018 at 8:11 am

    Hmmmm that is funny I pulled up the business listing and the owner was Pat Hughes not the name you had. When confronted with who is giving him all this money for all the mailers and such they changed owners?

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