Can't they just write angry letters to the editor?

It was an oddity when Scurlock did it the other day. But it's starting to look now like this politicians-sue-the-newspaper thing is a deliberate tactic. 

Louisiana Supreme Court Justice Jefferson Hughes III has filed a defamation lawsuit against The Advocate’s parent company, alleging that the newspaper knowingly published false and damaging information last year about his actions in a decades-old child abuse and custody case that led to a lengthy FBI investigation.

Ordinarily there are a range of options available to a political figure who doesn't  like what the press was saying about them. You can wait out the news cycle and ignore it altogether. That's usually the smart move. If the story persists a little too long, then you Issue A Statement. This can be a letter to the offending outlet which, most of the time, they will happily publish for you.  Or, if you want an actual audience for your side of the story, just post something on social media.

But, really, the thing to do most of the time is let it die quietly.  Any other tactic, including filing a lawsuit, by the way, just puts the whole story back in the public eye. So killing the story is never the purpose of these things.  If your purpose is to kill (or at least intimidate) the free press, on the other hand, well, this might be a thing you choose to do.