R.I. Federal Judge Allows Journos to Live-Tweet Sentencing Hearing; Court System Remains Intact

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United States District Court for the District of Rhode Island Chief Judge William E. Smith this week allowed journalists for the first time to use cellphones and other electronic devices to live-Tweet the sentencing of a criminal case, the Providence Journal reported today.

Judge Smith permitted social media coverage of the sentencing of Joseph A. Caramadre, a  politically connected philanthropist who received a six-year jail term and was ordered to pay millions in restitution for orchestrating an investment scheme that victimized terminally ill individuals.

The high-profile sentencing hearing became a one-time exception to the court's antiquated local rules that proscribe the use of such devices in court.

Two Prominent New England Dailies on the Block

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Autumn in New England and the leaves--and daily newspapers--continue to fall.

If you have oodles of cash on hand and a slight masochistic streak, you might contact Stevens, a privately held independent financial services firm, and put in a bid for The Providence Journal, which the Rhode Island Public Radio Website (www.ripr.org) reports is for sale.

ProJo's owner, Dallas-based A.H. Belo, which doled out $1.5 billion in 1997 to purchase the Providence daily and its associated tv stations, is looking to unload ProJo, so that it can focus its attention on its core market in Big D, according to the RIPR post.

Meanwhile, last week John Henry, gazillionaire owner of the Boston Red Sox and Boston Globe, told staffers at the Worcester Telegram & Gazette--New England's third-largest daily--that he was looking for an interested local party to purchase the T & G, which was part of Henry's  $70 million Globe acquisition from the New York Times (see "TUOL" post 8/6/13).  The Times paid $296 million for the T & G in 2000, which it folded into its New England Media Group, along with the Globe.

Couldn't have been too comforting for Worcester editorial staffers to read Henry's October 27 letter in the Globe titled "Why I Bought the Globe" that failed to even mention his T& G acquisition. No potential buyers have stepped forward, though Gatehouse Media, Inc., freshly emerged from a structured Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is rumored to be interested.

(Not Divine) Providence Journal Staffers Accept Buyouts; Layoffs Loom

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A dozen Guild members of the Providence Journal are taking the money and running, but the voluntary buyouts by four newsroom staffers and eight advertising dept. employees are not expected to spare the daily further layoffs, WPRI-TV's blog (www.wpri.com) reported.

Among editorial staffers who took the buyout are a religion writer, an investigative/legal reporter and syndicated columnist Froma Harrop, according to WPRI-TV. Declining circulation and Second Quarter ad revenues, which were off 14 percent compared to a year ago, likely means pending newsroom layoffs. Management last month told the Guild they were looking to eliminate 30 jobs.

Over a three-year period from 2008 to 2011, more than 240 jobs were lost at the Journal.

Pink-Slipped Journos Feeling Blue in R.I. & Mass.

The Providence Journal (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It's the same musical refrain: shrinking circulation, declining ad revenues and a redirection toward digital editions, but it has New England journalists singing the blues.

WPRI.com reported this week that The Providence Journal trimmed its 460-member workforce by 5 percent, including three photographers among the 23 employees given their walking papers. The Journal, which also saw 11 staffers accept a voluntary buyout in September, must make do with its remaining 10 photographers.

Journal parent company A.H. Belo pointed to sagging advertising linage, noting a 13 percent plunge in advertising revenue during the 3Q of 2012, compared to the same three-month period ending September 30 a year ago.

Meanwhile, The Boston Globe Web site, boston.com, reported this week that the Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc. ("CNH") chain, whose stable of dailies includes The Lawrence Eagle-Tribune, Gloucester Daily Times, Salem News, The Daily (Newburyport) News, also slashed 5 percent of its 375-member workforce, cutting 21 jobs.

CNH, which is headquartered in Montgomery, Alabama, did not detail which papers would be impacted, though it was reported elsewhere that the Eagle-Tribune (against whom the ink-stained staff of "TUOL" competed at a rival paper back in the day) lost a couple of reporters.

UPDATE: R.I. High Court Affirms Dismissal of Restaurateur's Defamation Suit

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)In Robert L. Burke et al. v. Katherine Gregg et al. (Case No. 2011-148), the Rhode Island Supreme Court this week upheld a trial court's dismissal of a restaurant owner's defamation suit against The Providence Journal and Citadel Broadcasting Co.-owned WPRO-AM (see "TUOL" post 3/26/10).

In the decision written by Associate Justice Francis X. Flaherty, the High Court ruled against Burke, owner of Providence's Pot au Feu restaurant, holding that the article at issue by Journal reporter Katherine Gregg was not susceptible to a defamatory meaning and that an epithet-laced rant by WPRO-AM talk show host Dan Yorke against Burke amounted to First Amendment-protected opinion based on underlying facts.

A lower court previously tossed Burke's suit, which arose from a Gregg article about a St. Patrick's Day "Murphy's Law Luncheon" roast hosted by Burke's restaurant and attended by pols and business leaders. The Journal article allegedly wrongly attributed to Burke that remarks at the event were "off the record." That led to a nasty exchange between Burke and Yorke on the latter's radio show in which Yorke allegedly called Burke a "punk," "stupid," and a "manipulative piece of garbage."

Such coarseness, however, is the life's blood of talk radio, which courts routinely dismiss as opinion and rhetorical hyperbole incapable of harming one's reputation. Regarding Gregg's article identifying Burke as wanting the luncheon proceedings off the record, Justice Flaherty could not "conceive of how these comments could reasonably be interpreted to have injuriously affected Burke's reputation, degraded him in society, or brought him into public hatred or contempt."

Restaurant owners know that when there's a disagreement, sometimes it's best to "comp" the check and move on.

R.I. Restauranteur Serves Up Libel Suit Against DJ & Reporter

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Courtroom News Service (CNS) reports that politically connected Providence restauranteur Bob Burke, owner of Pot au Feu, has filed a defamation suit in Superior Court against WPRO-AM talkmeister Dan Yorke, reporter Katherine Gregg, and their respective employers, Citadel Broadcasting Co. and The Providence Journal.

Burke's eatery hosted the "Murphy's Law Luncheon" on St. Patrick's Day in 2009 for Ocean State solons headed by former R.I. House Speaker William Murphy, the District 26 Democrat succeeded last month by Gordon Fox. According to the complaint, Burke alleges the defendants ascribed to him what actually was Rep. Murphy's position that lawmakers' comments at the luncheon be "off-the-record."

Burke alleges that a column by Gregg wrongly attributed the off-the-record rule to him, which purportedly sparked an on-air rant by talk-radio provocateur Yorke against him. Burke alleges his reputation was harmed personally and professionally by the on-air attack in which Yorke purportedly called him "stupid," a "punk," a "mob actor," and a " manipulative piece of garbage," among other epithets, and invited Burke to "kiss my Irish ass."

"TUOL" has not yet reviewed the complaint. Such invective, which sadly passes for political discourse nowadays, rarely reaches the defamation threshold, but is considered opinion or rhetorical hyperbole. The high-profile plaintiff likely would be considered a public figure, rather than a private person, which also raises his burden of proving defamation.

Still, the restauranteur's lawsuit has given the local media something to chew on.