Whose career was ruined? The mayor or the freeper?
The FReeper, Joseph Steffen (a.k.a. NCPAC), was forced out of his job in Maryland governor Ehrlich's (R) administration as a result of the Washington Post and Baltimore Sun's articles claiming he spread rumors about Baltimore Mayor O'Malley's (D) alleged affair with a Baltimore TV anchorwoman who is now in New York.
The Washington Post used NCPAC's FReepmails to try to build a story that NCPAC was involved in spreading the O'Malley infidelity rumors. In fact, all NCPAC ever did was comment on the rumors, as far as we can tell. MD4Bush prodded NCPAC to get more information in his FReepmails, which were somehow given to the Washington Post. About the same time the WaPo published its first story, MD4Bush posted NCPAC's FReepmails ONLY on two dormant Free Republic threads.