Fire Dan Snyder's Subpoena

Redskins owner Dan Snyder is really bad at putting a good football team on the field and really good at drumming up bad publicity. He's at it again now that his attorneys have subpoenaed Washington Post blogger Dan Steinberg in the Dave McKenna-gate case, even though Steinberg seems to be nothing more than an observer in this ongoing train wreck.

Snyder's next subpoena could be sent to you.

According to the subpoena, Snyder's crack legal team wants more information on why Steinberg linked to McKenna's allegedly libelous story when reporting on Snyder's lawsuit back in February. According to the Washington City Paper, Steinberg and McKenna are "friendly rivals" who cover the same beat, and Steinberg has linked to some of McKenna's work in the past. Snyder's lawyers are specifically seeking: "All documents evidencing or relating to any communication between [Steinberg] and McKenna pertaining to Snyder... All documents evidencing or relating to any communication between [Steinberg] and McKenna pertaining to Snyder's wife... And all documents evidencing or relating to the reasons for the inclusion of links in [Steinberg's] Washington Post columns, blogs, or on Twitter to McKenna's City Paper articles."   

To an observer who assumes the worst about Snyder and has no legal background (like the HR Department), this move seems like a fishing expedition designed to further intimidate the media. Steinberg's relationship with McKenna hardly seems relevant to whether or not McKenna libeled Snyder, and Snyder's PR man Tony Wyllie has said that this lawsuit is, at least in part, intended to chill future criticism of the Redskins' commander-in-grief.

Snyder simply doesn't play nice, and each new development in his lawsuit is further evidence of that. No one denies that he has the right to sue McKenna, but his legal eagles need to stick to the relevant facts of the case and not start subpoenaing every reporter who ever wrote anything about McKenna's story. Perhaps this overreaching suggests that Snyder's team hasn't been able to come up with much of a case. Should Snyder lose he will have managed to embarrass himself yet again, which is quite the feat for a guy who once sued an elderly and unemployed Redskins season ticket holder who tried to end her 10-year ticket agreement after one year. But as long as Snyder continues to fall on his face, the HR Department will be here to fire him.