WTF?
Please help me understand this story.
The story I reprint below was published this morning by The Baltimore Sun. It is intriguing, to say the least. My only teensy problem with it is summarized by the three-letter headline at the top of this column.
So, let’s unpack this one together and see what emerges. We’ll do this as a series of polls at the end of the newspaper story, which is — this is part of the puzzle — unbelievably ineptly written.
Buckle up. This will be quite a ride. I am cut-and-pasting the top 2/3 of the story, below:
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Maryland official denies receiving warning over alleged nude photos to deputies
A previously private dispute between Wicomico County’s two highest-ranking elected officials has reached a breaking point, sparking a potential public records battle over whether the sheriff ordered the county executive to stop sending his deputies sexually explicit images.
Wicomico County Executive Julie Giordano and Sheriff Mike Lewis are at odds over the existence of a document that sources allege is a demand for Giordano to cease sending semi-nude, nude or pornographic photographs of herself to sheriff’s deputies.
While Giordano flatly denied that such a document exists, describing the allegations as a “horrific rumor” and a product of political malice, Lewis confirmed the letter’s existence in an interview last week. However, he said he would not release it to the public without a court order.
The conflicting accounts have prompted Spotlight on Maryland to file a formal demand for records under the Maryland Public Information Act (MPIA). The county has thus far withheld key documents, citing exemptions for personal privacy and records being “investigatory.”
Conflicting narratives
The controversy stems from allegations that Giordano, both during her 2022 campaign and early into her tenure as county executive, sent nude or semi-nude photos to deputies in the sheriff’s office. Sources familiar with the matter allege that in October 2024, Lewis issued a letter to the county executive demanding an end to the behavior.
When asked about the situation last week, Giordano dismissed the claims as “false narratives.”
“There was never a letter sent to stop,” Giordano said. “So, basically what happened was, there was a horrific rumor that went around, and that’s just what happens in a campaign, and so, we’ve moved on from it.”
Giordano said she and Lewis had discussed the matter and worked through it.
“We have a campaign coming up, so I think we have handled it quite well, and Sheriff Lewis and I have had those conversations,” Giordano said. “He seems to be, ‘I don’t really know where this came from, I don’t know why this happened,’ and that sort of thing, so we’ve worked together on that and sort of got over it together.”
Asked whether deputies who claimed to have received the images were false or lying, Giordano said she knew of no deputies who had made such a claim.
“I don’t believe that there are any deputies who have claimed to have received any of them, at least not that I know of,” she said. “I know of none that have claimed to have received anything.”
“It’s not something that happened,” Giordano added. “Again, just the sad side of politics, and it’s just a shame that people, I think, go out of their way to hurt people and try to create these false narratives and false rumors.”
However, when pressed hours after Spotlight’s interview with Giordano in Salisbury, Lewis contradicted the county executive’s account. While declining to discuss the specific contents of the correspondence, the sheriff confirmed, “The letter does exist.”
Lewis declined to release the document voluntarily, saying, “I’m not going to give you a copy of that letter unless I’m ordered to by the court. And when I’m ordered by the court, you will get a copy of that letter.”
Meanwhile, the county’s legal response to Spotlight’s public records request proves the existence of the letter.
After the county initially failed to acknowledge a January request for communications involving terms such as “nudes” and “pornographic,” an attorney for Sinclair, Inc., the parent company of Spotlight on Maryland, issued a formal demand for documents.
The county attorney has withheld the contested records, arguing their release would constitute an “unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.”
When pressed, Giordano said she was aware of the records request in January but disputed that a cease-and-desist letter existed.
“I never received a cease-and-desist letter,” she said. “I would go on the record and say that the reason that the document didn’t get released is because it doesn’t exist because I never received a cease-and-desist letter from them.”
While the document in question allegedly did not contain the headline “cease or desist,” sources claim the letter did tell the Wicomico County executive to stop.
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Okay, now. To begin:
Good, now: Based on the facts, such as they are available in this story — what do you think happened here? Which of these is the most likely explanation?
A: She sent risque pictures to a deputy or deputies for some reason.
B: She didn’t send such pictures. The sheriff is lying for some reason.
C: She didn’t send such pictures, but the sheriff thought or had been told that she had.
Okay, that’s it. I anticipate a robust discussion for the mailbag.
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And finally:
I recently mentioned (hint) a certain famous person in The Gene Pool and instantly got a communique from my good friend Christine Lavin, the folksinger. Chris reminded me about a song she once wrote about this same person, and sent me a link. It is a terrific song. In perfect harmony with the rest of this here column, the title of her song was “What the Hell Was That?”
Here is the link. There will be a poll afterwards.
Did you listen? Good.
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Great song. I thought at first she was singing about Trump, but then sang that he died two years later. A girl can dream!
Since there is apparently no evidence that Lewis originated the rumor, it appears he is leveraging the supposed letter for personal and political reasons. Very close to the classic burden of proof fallacy, with a twist that makes it even more potent in politics: the sheriff is invoking the existence of a document he won’t produce, which shifts the burden onto Giordano to disprove something that has no publicly verifiable evidence. This is exactly how a rumor becomes a “fact‑shaped object.” Also, a classic sexualized rumor that spreads because it targets a woman in authority, not because of anything she did.