Seer Vs. Scribes

The man who calls himself Sollog may not be able to predict the future, but he sure does know how to get under the skin of media types from coast to coast.

Kenneth Reich, a Los Angeles Times reporter who covers earthquakes and volcanoes, says his paper is considering legal action against Sollog because of threats against Reich and predictions of impending doom. And the Washington Post is "taking seriously" Sollog's charge, e-mailed to the paper Tuesday, that the Post libeled and slandered him and infringed on his copyright in a recent article about Internet reaction to the death of Princess Diana in which the writer quoted some of Sollog's Diana predictions.

As someone who covers calamity, Reich says there are plenty of people who claim they can predict the future. But in his 32 years in the business, he has never run across anyone quite like Sollog.

"This man, who sometimes claims to be God himself, started sending me various predictions," Reich says. "Of course, I ignored these."

Reich says he quickly found out that ignoring Sollog is about as easy as predicting when the next volcano will blow.

"He began to berate me as a moron," says Reich. "Then he stepped up his e-mail messages to me. I finally told him to stop e-mailing me. About an hour later, I got a threat, saying I was going to die a very bizarre death from a terrible thing. He was not saying he was going to do it, but that I would be struck down."

Reich says the threat angered him, to the point where he contacted the FBI and the paper's security staff about Sollog, whom he calls "the dark side of the Internet."

The FBI, says Reich, "did not seem terribly interested" in Sollog. However, the paper's security staff, says Reich, is considering taking legal action against Sollog, through his Internet provider.

"The Los Angeles Times is not in the business of shutting down freedom of speech, but this guy has become a major annoyance."

Despite his protests and his complaints to the FBI and the L.A. Times security staff, Reich says he still receives e-mail from Sollog on a daily basis.

Until Tuesday, Katherine Weymouth, the Washington Post's assistant counsel, had never heard of Sollog.

Now she has heard more than enough of him and then some.

"Oh, him," Weymouth sighed Tuesday evening when contacted about Sollog's nine-page missive that was e-mailed to her that day.

In it, Sollog charges the paper, and reporter Victoria Shannon, with "copyright infringementare also alleging conspiracy and gross violations of First Amendment rights pursuant to Freedom of Religion and Speech."

Sollog's wrath is aimed at three paragraphs in Shannon's Sept. 9 story about the overwhelming Internet response to Diana's death.

"As has been noted countless times before," Shannon wrote, "online services and Internet software make everyone a publisher. Sollog can get the same screen space on your computer that Dan Rather does, but the resources, the quality and the degree of the sources are at opposite ends of the spectrum."

So upset was Sollog that, in addition to making the charges against the paper, he posted Shannon's various e-mail addresses on his Web site, telling people to bombard her with e-mail complaints.

Weymouth, in a written statement, says Sollog's lengthy message, sent via e-mail, "does not constitute proper service [of a lawsuit]with a complaint and have no comment on his particular 'complaint.' We take all legal claims seriously, however, as we must."

Weymouth adds that "we are confident that any quotes used by Ms. Shannon constitute fair use of the material and do not, therefore, violate any copyright laws."

Weymouth also says she is unaware of any predictions of doom against the paper or its employees. Shannon did not return several calls. Sollog did not return an e-mail request seeking comment.

—Howard Altman