Billionaire Buys a King

Larry King (Photo credit: Wikipedia)Ora.TV, a digital network startup owned by 72-year-old Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, CEO of Telmex and America Movil telcom companies and the world's richest man, is set to debut what is expected to be a stable of talk shows this summer, through streaming and apps on its Web site and elsewhere.

And the "fresh" face that will launch Ora.TV? That would be 78-year-old Larry King, whose Larry King Now will be posted online daily at 5 p.m. or 6 p.m. for watching by viewers at their leisure, according to an Associated Press story today.

King hosted Larry King Live for 25 years on CNN before being less-than-gently ushered out the door to make room for Piers Morgan Tonight. No, really.  Unlike his hour-long CNN gabfest, Larry King Now will air for 30 minutes, though may run shorter or longer depending on the person being interviewed and presumably, King's bladder control.

The energetic, suspenders-wearing Brooklynite aims to attract A-listers to his new Ora.TV project, telling AP that he hopes to interview President Barack Obama and  prospective GOP nominee Mitt Romney.

As the saying goes, "you can't keep a good man down."  Or, apparently, Larry King either.

N.H. High Court Rules Public Meeting Discussion Exempt from Right-to-Know Laws Disclosure

New Hampshire Supreme Court Building (Photo credit: Wikipedia)"If a tree falls in the woods and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?" is a golden oldie that has been pondered by Philosophy 101 students since time immemorial.

Perhaps the New Hampshire Supreme Court should tackle the question, having just ruled in Professional Firefighters of New Hampshire ("PFFNH") v. The New Hampshire Local Government Center ("NHLGC") (Case No. 2011-550) that just because communications by public officials may occur during a public meeting in a public place, it doesn't mean the communications are not confidential if no member of the public actually heard them.

The PFFNH sought minutes of 14 public local government meetings that occurred during 2000-2009 under the Granite State's Right to Know law [RSA Chapter 91-A], but received redacted documents in response under a claim that the excluded portions were exempt as privileged attorney-client communications. Pursuant to RSA 91-A:5 IV, "confidential information" is exempt from the general disclosure requirement, and the burden of proving that information is confidential is on the party seeking to prevent disclosure.

The plaintiff contended the redacted portions should be made available because the interactions with counsel occurred in public and the defendant made no effort to protect the privacy of the communications at issue by, for example, voting to meet in executive session. The N.H. High Court, however, sided with the lower court decision that: "The fact that the meeting occurs in a public place does not destroy the privilege, if no one hears the conversation." In other words, if the utterer of a communication reasonably believes that only privileged persons will hear the content of a communication, the communication can be confidential.

(Tip of the hat to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press [www.rcfp.org] for shining a spotlight on this decision.)

Buffetting the News

Berkshire Hathaway Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett(Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)Richmond, Va.-based media conglomerate Media General, Inc. expects to close a deal on June 25 in which it will unload 63 newspapers to the BH Media Group, a subsidiary of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, Inc., for a cool $142 million in cash.

In a company press release reported on Marketwatch.com, Media General said its dailies and weeklies in the southeastern U.S., except for its Florida holdings, along with Web sites and tablet and mobile apps, are part of the deal. The media outlets will be managed by World Media Enterprises, Inc., a sister company of the Omaha World Herald Co., which also is part of the BH Media Group newspaper stable.

Media General, which has concentrated on its digital and broadcast holdings in recent years, owns 18 network-affiliated television stations and their Web sites. A $400 million term loan and a $45 million revolving line of credit from Berkshire Hathaway to Media General was also finalized in a separate credit agreement, according to the press release.

UPDATE: Appeals Court Says Google & NSA Can Stay Mum About Alleged Relationship

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Agreeing with a lower court ruling last year (see "TUOL" post 7/19/11), the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit last week ruled the National Security Agency need not respond to a Freedom of Information Act request [5 U.S.C. sec. 552 et seq.] regarding an agreement that the NSA may or may not have forged with Google.

The decision in Electronic Privacy Information Center v. National Security Agency (Case No. 11-5233) said the NSA need not respond at all to the FOIA request by EPIC, a public interest watchdog group, as even a refusal to comply could provide information about a possible relationship between NSA and Google.  In the parlance of the security arena, to neither confirm nor deny the existence of requested documents is a so-called Glomar response, named after a past case involving a journalist's efforts to obtain data from the CIA about an underwater vessel.

The appellate court ruled the NSA could properly invoke Exemption No. 1 of the nine FOIA exemptions, which allows a government agency to withhold: "Those documents properly classified as secret in the interest of national defense or foreign policy."

No word as yet about whether EPIC plans to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Sunday Los Angeles Times Becomes a Shorter Read as LA Folds

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)LA, the Los Angeles Times Sunday magazine, will disappear after its June 3 issue, and Editor Nancie Clare and six other staffers are out, the LA Observed.com and Poynter.org Web sites report.

In a staff memo, Times President Kathy Thomson blamed the same issues that have plagued the magazine industry generally--declining readership and shrinking ad pages--for the move. LA has had a checkered recent history, in which it was placed under the aegis of the advertising department in 2008, only to have the editorial department regain control a year later when Clare was brought on as editor.

Fair Use Derails Publishers' Copyright Suit Against University

Georgia State University Logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)In what may be a precedent-setting 350-page ruling in Cambridge University Press et al. v. Patton et al. (Case No. 1:2008-cv-01425), Senior United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia Judge Orinda Evans ruled that Georgia State University was protected by the fair use doctrine against copyright infringement claims by SAGE Publications, Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press.

As reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Associated Press and elsewhere, Judge Evans's decision, which some legal experts believe may be the first of its kind in the nation, rejected the plaintiffs' allegations that GSU sanctioned copyright infringement by permitting professors to download and copy excerpts from course materials. Judge Evans ruled in favor of GSU on 69 counts of copyright infringement, but found against the defendant on five counts in which she determined publishers suffered monetary damages where students had unrestricted access to complete textbook chapters; specifically, five excerpts from four different texts.

The plaintiffs filed sued in April 2008. In her ruling, Judge Evans concluded reproducing one chapter in a book that contained more than 10 chapters was permissible without constituting copyright infringement. Under the fair use doctrine [17 U.S.C. sec. 107], a copyright holder need not consent to publication of his or her material depending on the purpose and character of the use, the nature of the copyrighted work, the amount and substantiality of the portion of the work used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole and the effect of the use on the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

Judge Evans wrote her decision would "further the spread of knowledge."

CIA Bay of Pigs History Volume Remains Under Wraps

Map of Cuba, showing the Bay of Pigs (Photo credit: Wikipedia)United States District Court for the District of Columbia Judge Gladys Kessler last week ruled against a research institute's Freedom of Information Act ("FOIA")[5 U.S.C. sec. 552] request to gain access to Volume 5 of the CIA's exhaustive history of the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1961.

The National Security Archive, a 27-year-old nongovernmental research institute and library, filed a 6-page Complaint for Injunctive Relief, National Security Archive v. Central Intelligence Agency (Case No. 1:06-cv-01080-GK) to get a peak at Vol. 5, the CIA's Internal Investigation Report, a purported rebuttal by CIA chief historian Jack Pfeiffer against a critical report by the CIA's inspector general that blamed the agency for the unsuccessful April 1961 Bay of Pigs operations.

The CIA successfully withheld the requested data pursuant to Exemption 5 of the FOIA, which is invoked to exclude "A privileged inter-agency or intra-agency memorandum or letter." More specifically, the so-called deliberative process privilege is intended to "prevent injury to the quality of agency decisions," by encouraging candid discussions of policy matters between superiors and subordinates and protecting against premature disclosure of proposed, but not yet adopted, policies.

Judge Kessler agreed with lawyers for the CIA who argued the release of Vol. 5 to the NSA could yield inaccurate historical information that could lead to self-censorship by CIA historians. Judge Kessler concurred that the material sought was a draft, not a completed work, from a subordinate that Pfeiffer allegedly rejected.

Ecdysiast/Journalist Sues Daily for Stripping Her of Her Job

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)Short-time society reporter and part-time exotic dancer Sarah Tressler has filed a gender discrimination complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against The Houston Chronicle, which she claims terminated her after learning about her second job.

According to accounts by The New York Daily News and Associated Press, Tressler, a New York University journalism graduate who is represented by attorney to the stars Gloria Allred, worked for the Chronicle, for whom she previously freelanced, from January until March of this year as a society reporter.  She alleges that after a weekly newspaper reported that she worked as a stripper, the Chronicle dismissed her.

According to the news articles, Tressler said she did not include her dancing experience on her resume or Chronicle job application because it was never a full-time job. Tressler maintains a Facebook page titled "Diary of an Angry Stripper," and has both a "DAS" app and a book in the works.

Attorney Allred was quick to note that her 30-year-old client was not engaged in any unlawful activity and that her clothes shedding to music did not interfere with her duties as a journalist. It remains to be seen whether the EEOC will reconcile Tressler writing about polls as a journalist and writhing around poles as a stripper.

UPDATE: Sun-Times Owner Set to Acquire Weekly Chicago Reader

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)Crain's Chicago Business (Chicagobusiness.com) reports that Wrapports, LLC, owner of the daily Chicago Sun-Times tabloid, expects to complete its acquisition of the free weekly Chicago Reader  for roughly $3 million next week.

According to Crain's, Wrapports, which forked up $23 million last December to buy Sun-Times Media, publisher of The Chicago Sun-Times, along with seven suburban dailies and 30 suburban weekly newspapers, is close to tying up the deal to land the Reader. As previously reported here (see "TUOL" post 3/13/12), Texas-based Bulkey Capital LP was retained to oversee the unloading of the Reader, which presently is owned by New York investment banker Atalaya Capital Management L.P.

The Atalaya hedge fund came into the Reader in 2009 when it purchased it out of bankruptcy, along with The Washington City Weekly and Creative Loafing Atlanta, from an insolvent Florida company, Creative Loafing, Inc., for $5 million. The Reader, which distributes about 90,000 copies weekly through newspaper boxes, restaurants, bars and retail shops, is expected to compete against the Chicago Tribune-published RedEye for Chicago's younger audience.

Salt Lake Tribune Jettisons Nine Newsroom Staffers

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)Utah's largest daily, The Salt Lake Tribune, has announced layoffs of nine editorial employees, a 7.5 percent reduction in newsroom personnel, leaving an editorial staff of 119.

The Trib, owned by Denver-based MediaNews Group, blamed sagging circulation and declining ad pages for the staff reduction, which largely affected the copy desk.

More's the pity to the pink-slipped journalists who are unable to drown their sorrows at the pub past 1 a.m. in Salt Lake City.

Twitter Fights Subpoena in Occupy Wall Street Case

Getty Images via @daylifeNew York County Criminal Court Judge Matthew Sciarrino  recently declined the defendant's motion to quash a subpoena in People v. Malcolm Harris (Case No. 2011NY080152) for lack of standing, but Agence France Presse news service reports that, backed by the ACLU, microblogger Twitter will challenge the court order to hand over user data to authorities.

Harris faced a disorderly conduct [P.L. sec. 240.20[5]] charge for his alleged involvement in an Occupy Wall Street demonstration on the Brooklyn Bridge last year. Law enforcement officials issued a subpoena to Twitter seeking email information and tweets for the period from 9/15/11 to 12/31/11 for account @destructuremal, a Twitter account allegedly used by Harris.

In his decision against Harris, Judge Sciarrino said Twitter does not guarantee its users complete privacy. According to a press release by the ACLU, however, Twitter is contesting the subpoena, claiming its Terms of Service indicate that users "own" their content. The social media giant contends that compliance with the court's order would run afoul of the federal Stored Communications Act [18 U.S.C. sec. 2701-2711], a part of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act.

UPDATE: 11th Cir. Sides with Hustler in Benoit Privacy Suit

The United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit last week in LFP Publishing Group d/b/a Hustler Magazine v. Maureen Toffoloni, Admin. of the Estate of Nancy E. Benoit (Docket No. 11-cv-12922) refused to reinstate a  near $20 million 2011 jury award against the adult magazine for publishing nude photos of the spouse of professional wrestler Chris Benoit, who strangled her and the couple's son in a murder-suicide in 2007 (see "TUOL" post 1/27/12).

The appellate court ruled that although Hustler wrongly published the then-24-year-old photos of former model and wrestler Nancy Benoit, its actions did not warrant the $19.6 million punitive damages (later reduced by a District Court judge to $250,000) assessed by the jury. Georgia recognizes a right of publicity/invasion of privacy action that allows a plaintiff to recover for the commercial use of his or her image without permission. Though Hustler was misguided in its belief, the appellate court found the magazine had a good-faith belief that the photos satisfied the "newsworthiness" defense to a right of publicity claim because of Nancy Benoit's violent death.

'Big Brother' Watching People Living in Glass Houses

Fred Allen

CBS is engaged in saber-rattling with rival network, ABC, threatening litigation over a reality show debuting next month that the folks at Black Rock claim apes one of their popular programs.

CBS, which airs Big Brother, has its Eye, so to speak, on Glass House, which is set to debut next month on ABC. The New York Times reports that CBS sent ABC a lawyer letter complaining that Glass House is "substantially and strikingly" similar to Big Brother. Glass House involves 14 people vying for a cash prize by being the last person standing after spending the summer sharing a home together under the scrutiny of television cameras. Meanwhile, Big Brother, which is set to air its 14th season this summer, involves people living together for three months in a privacy-free zone, cut off from the outside world, but under constant television camera surveillance.  That's entertainment.

In its letter to ABC that hints at litigation, CBS notes that Glass House allegedly employs 18 former Big Brother staffers, according to the Times article.  CBS previously unsuccessfully sued ABC after the latter premiered a reality show entitled I'm a Celebrity--Get Me Out of Here, that CBS alleged infringed on the granddaddy of reality television shows, Survivor.

Radio comic Fred Allen's words: "Imitation is the sincerest form of television," never seemed truer.

New York Times Slashes 50 Positions; Newsroom Spared

Assistant General Counsel George Freeman, a 31-year New York Times veteran, was among those pink-slipped as The Times last week eliminated 50 positions.

In a story broken by media watchdog Jim Romanesko (JimRomanesko.com) and reported by Capitalnewyork.com and elsewhere, the job reductions spared the newsroom but affected personnel in the finance, legal and human resources departments. The Times is in the throes of difficult contract negotiations with the union that represents more than 1,000 Times staffers.

Quieting the Town Crier

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The Greenfield (Mass.) Town Crier, a weekly newspaper founded in 1961 and distributed free each Friday, will turn off the lights with its May 11 issue, the Brattleboro (Vt.) Reformer reports.

Although the Town Crier recently launched a Web site, established a Facebook presence and underwent a re-design, the end result was the same as watching one's middle-aged uncle throw on a bad toupee, don khakis and go to a bar for twenty-somethings.  Like the newspaper industry overall, the Town Crier was not immune to the effects of declining ad pages and readers' changing tastes.

The Reformer published the Town Crier. Both newspapers are owned by digital first Media's Media News Group, Inc. The Town Crier, a source of local and community news, had a circulation of roughly 12,000, according to the Mondotimes.com Web site.

Litigatin' Glitterati: George & Julia Bring Privacy Suit

In George Clooney & Julia Moder, known professionally as Julia Roberts v. Digital Projection, Inc., Beyond Audio, Inc. &  Does 1-20 (Case No. SC116851) filed last week in Los Angeles County Superior Court, two of Hollywood's most elite stars sued two companies for allegedly misappropriating their images.

The Hollywood Reporter's THR, Esq. blog reported exclusively on the filing of the 14-page complaint that includes counts alleging trademark infringement under the Lanham Act [15 U.S.C. sec. 1125], misappropriation [Cal. Civ. Code sec. 3344] and negligence against Georgia-based Digital Projection and Beyond Audio, a Canadian company.  Clooney and Roberts are seeking compensatory damages, triple damages, punitive damages, attorneys' fees and injunctive relief against the defendants for their purported use of the actors' images in advertising, marketing and promotional materials.

Actors need to protect their rights of publicity ("my face is my fortune" and all that), so the star-struck staff of "TUOL" is sympathetic to the plaintiffs. Also, anything that keeps George & Julia too busy to consider an Ocean's 14 sequel can't be a bad thing.

Sinking Ratings, Programming Woes Plague CNN

Post Production editing offices in Atlanta. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Time Warner-owned CNN last month drew an average 357,000 viewers, the cable news network's  lowest average monthly figure since 2001, the New York Times reports.

Despite a programming shake-up that saw Soledad O'Brien installed as morning host, Erin Burnett handed a 7 p.m. slot and Piers Morgan imported from across the pond to take over Larry King's 9 p.m. slot, the 32-year-old CNN has lost out to cable news channel rival MSNBC 22 of the last 24 months in the ratings battle for second place behind ratings leader Fox News, according to the Times article.

CNN is expected to return a $600 million operating profit to Time Warner this year, but has over the past half year, trimmed its staff by 70 positions, including videographers, editors and a good chunk of its documentary unit.

The Times article cites an unnamed CNN staffer who likened the station to a hospital ER in that viewers are drawn to the network when a natural or man-made disaster occurs, just as individuals race to an emergency room when experiencing a heart attack, but that in both instances, people don't linger in either place. If CNN's ratings swoon continues, however, the morgue may be a more appropriate analogy than an emergency room.

Texas Bar Owner Loses Defamation Suit Against Blogger

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Dallas County Court Judge Mark Greenberg last week ended an 18-month courtroom battle, ruling in Fernando Rosales & Initiative Partners LLC d/b/a Lost Society v. Avi Adelman et al. (Case No. CC10-08658-E) that a blogger did not defame a bar owner.

According to an account on the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press Web site ( www.rcfp.org.), the case arose from blog posts as long ago as June 2010, on Adelman's BarkingDogs.org site regarding alleged business ordinance violations and customer violence involving the Lost Society bar. The allegedly libelous statement by the defendant characterized Rosales as a "scumbag owner" of  the Lost Society bar, the purported site where a victim and his alleged killer "partied" before the shooting occurred, according to a blog post by Adelman. The bar was shut down in October 2011, soon after Rosales's arrest for possession of a controlled substance.

Judge Greenberg ordered the plaintiffs to pay court costs. During the protracted litigation, the plaintiffs unsuccessfully sought an injunction to shut down Adelman's Web site and also subpoenaed him to reveal the source(s) of his post about the fatal shooting, which Adelman defeated by invoking the Texas Shield Law [Texas Civil Practices & Remedies Code §22.021-22.027; Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Arts. 38.11 and 38.111].

UPDATE: More Illinois Courtrooms Will Be Televised

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Buoyed by the early success of its experimental program, the Illinois Supreme Court has expanded the use of cameras in the courtroom to encompass an additional two counties, the Associated Press reports.

Courtrooms in the 17th Judicial Circuit, which includes the Northern Illinois counties of Boone and Winnebago, will allow tv cameras and photography, according to Chief Justice Thomas Kilbride. The Illinois Supreme Court launched the experimental cameras-in-the-courtroom program in January (see "TUOL" post 1/25/12).

Notwithstanding the expanded access, judges have considerable discretion regarding whether to allow cameras, and proscriptions are in place, including bans on coverage of jurors and jury selection, along with testimony in child custody and sexual abuse cases. Cameras are not permitted in cases involving trade secrets, divorce, adoption or juvenile proceedings either.

Federal Court Says Facebook 'Like' Not Like Protected Speech

Image via CrunchBase

A black armband, a burning cross and a torched American flag are among numerous examples of "speech" that the U. S. Supreme Court has characterized as worthy of First Amendment protection. So-called "symbolic speech" cases involve conduct through which the actor intends to convey a specific message and the audience reasonably understands the intended message.

The concept is familiar to media law students, but apparently is lost on United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia Judge Raymond Jackson, who last week ruled in Bland v. Roberts (2012 U.S. Dist. Lexis 57530, 4:11cv 45 E.D. Va.; Apr. 24, 2012) that social media users who press Facebook's thumbs-up "Like" icon are not engaged in First Amendment protected speech.

As reported by the Websites Arstechnical.com, Citmedialaw.org and elsewhere, the case involved six civilian Hampton County Sheriff's office employees who, unenamored of incumbent B.J. Roberts, attended cookouts, posted bumper stickers, and of greater relevance here, pressed the "Like" button on the Facebook page of challenger Jim Adams. Roberts won the election and terminated the six employees, citing budgetary constraints, but the workers shown the door claimed their protected First Amendment rights of speech and association were violated.

In allowing Roberts' summary judgment motion, Judge Jackson ruled: "Simply liking a Facebook page is insufficient. It is not the kind of substantive statement that has previously warranted constitutional protection." Beyond conceding Sheriff Roberts being aware that some of his staffers appeared on his challenger's Facebook page, the court refused to "infer the actual content of [plaintiff's] posts from one click of a button on Adams's Facebook page." Moreover, Judge Jackson cited the lack of evidence that Roberts knew about the bumper stickers, cookout attendance or other actions by the fired workers in support of Adams's campaign.

In the not-so-humble opinion of the "TUOL" staff, Judge Jackson's ruling is ripe for appeal. Clicking on the virtual famous Facebook thumb is a shorthand (no pun intended) way of saying to your million close Facebook friends: "I like Jim Adams and hope he wrests that Sheriff's badge from B.J. Roberts." Endorsing a candidate as protected First Amendment activity is a Westlaw query bound to yield oodles of established case law in its results.

Yes, Virginia, besides Santa Claus, there is also a Free Speech Clause.

Serving 'Cosmopolitan' to a Highball Crowd

Women's Wear Daily reports that Hearst's racy periodical Cosmopolitan is getting ready to unveil a fall  line of lingerie, jewelry, bags and accessories at that cutting edge, smoldering fashion enclave--J.C. Penney Co.?

 Penney execs would not confirm to WWD that their metaphoric, if not literal, "square" brick and mortar stores would be the site of the Cosmo girl garb rollout. For its part, Hearst merely admitted to WWD that it planned a major product launch this fall.

If true, it looks as if Cosmo readers have finally found their "Gee!" spot.

Canadian Free Speech Advocates Eye Criminal Libel Case

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The Canadian Civil Liberties Association and other free speech proponents are poised to see whether a New Brunswick court will follow the lead of courts in other provinces, including Newfoundland, Ontario, Alberta and Saskatchewan, by finding Criminal Code Section 301 concerning defamatory libel an unconstitutional infringement on free expression.

According to an article by Postmedia News (www.Canada.com), for allegedly referring to a police officer on his blog as a "sexual pervert," 52-year-old gadfly Charles LeBlanc faces a maximum two years in the slammer if charged and convicted. Only a dozen  Section 301 claims have been investigated since 1988, 80 percent of which resulted in no charges being brought, Postmedia News noted.

A century-old, little used law, Section 301 defines defamatory libel as published statements "likely to injure the reputation of any person by exposing him to hatred, contempt or ridicule, or that is designed to insult the person of or concerning whom it is published."  New Brunswick prosecutors have yet to decide whether to proceed against LeBlanc.

LeBlanc was arrested by Fredericton police in January after he complained in his blog about purportedly being touched inappropriately by a police officer during an encounter, which are relatively commonplace for the activist LeBlanc, whose infractions run the gamut from riding a bike without a helmet to causing a disturbance outside a police station.

None of the other provinces overturning Section 301 is binding on New Brunswick, but advocates of free expression and individual rights are hopeful that New Brunswick will follow suit.

TV Guide Buyer Looking for Variety?

Variety (magazine) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The New York Post reported today that Los Angeles-based private equity investor Open Gate Capital LLC, which paid $1 to purchase a distressed TV Guide in 2008 (see "TUOL" post 6/3/10), may now have Variety, the entertainment industry bible owned by Dutch media conglomerate Reed Elsevier, in its sights.

Reed Elsevier in March offered the troubled Hollywood trade paper for sale. A year ago, Detroit Internet media mogul Jay Penske was rumored to be in line to acquire Variety (see "TUOL" post 4/29/11). The Post story reports Variety's price tag could range from $10 million to $30 million.

Open Gate Capital apparently has pulled out of the running to acquire the TV Guide cable channel from the Lionsgate movie studio and co-owner One Equity Partners. The Post article suggests Discovery Communications may have an interest in buying the TV Guide Channel.

Check your listings for updates on this story.

UPDATE: bin Laden Death Photos FOIA-Exempt

(Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)

In a 29-page Memorandum of Decision in Judicial Watch, Inc. v. U.S. Department of Defense et al. (Docket No. 11-890-JEB), U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Judge James Boasberg yesterday granted the government's summary judgment motion barring the public release of video and images of the shooting and burial of Osama bin Laden.

The plaintiff sued the government last May 2, the day after President Obama announced the killing of the al-Qaeda leader, for the release of images associated with his death under the Freedom of Information Act [5 U.S.C. sec. 552] (see "TUOL" post 1/30/12). As reported by Legal Times (www.Legaltimes.typepad.com), the CIA withheld 52 documents in response to the FOIA request, arguing release of the volatile classified bin Laden records posed a national security risk.

Judge Boasberg ruled "the CIA's explanation of the threat to our national security that the release of these records could cause passes muster." Judicial Watch has filed a notice of appeal to the United States District Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

Paper Sued for Libel Over Faux Letter to the Editor

 Vermilion County, Illinois (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Paxton Record was "pranked" by a fake letter to the editor, and now, it, and its owner, The News-Gazette, Inc. of central Illinois, face a decidedly unfunny defamation suit, the News-Gazette reports.

The Rev. Michael McMahon, headmaster of the Notre Dame de La Salette Boys Academy Catholic boarding school, sued for libel and emotional distress in Vermilion County Circuit Court, seeking $50,000 damages for each of four counts brought against the media defendants.  A letter to the editor published by the Record on April 6, 2011, supported gay rights and purportedly was authored by the president of the Gay, Lesbian & Bisexual Association of Vermilion County ("GLBAVC"), who is identified in the letter as Michael McMahon and whose given address and phone number match the Notre Dame de La Salette Boys Academy.

The Paxton Record acknowledged it had been had with a prominent correction and apology in the issue following publication of the faux letter.  The complaint alleges the defendants made no effort to confirm the validity of the letter by contacting McMahon before running it and claims the plaintiff's ability to function as a headmaster at a Catholic institution and carry out his duties as a priest were impaired by his association with a gay rights advocacy group.

Ordinarily, proving damages and harm to his reputation might be considerable hurdles for the plaintiff, but Illinois' defamation law allows that certain statements are defamatory per se (on their face) and do not require the plaintiff to prove damages. Should be an interesting case, because, although the Catholic Church has hardly been in the vanguard of the gay rights movement, the idea of being portrayed as sympathetic to the notion of tolerance for others doesn't seem such a terrible thing, and if the community that knows Rev. McMahon knows he did not author the letter and is not the president of GLBAVC, how is his reputation harmed? Rev. Jerry Falwell's defamation claim against Hustler magazine in the '80s failed because no one believed true the content of a parody ad suggesting Falwell had been intimate with his mother, among other things.

McClatchy 'McClobbered' By 1Q Earnings Results

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Sacramento, Calif.-based media conglomerate, The McClatchy Company, suffered a 5.1 percent drop in advertising revenues for the First Quarter of 2012, compared to First Quarter 2011 figures, the McClatchy-owned Sacramento Bee reports.

McClatchy, whose holdings include The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, The Charlotte Observer, The Anchorage Daily News and The Miami Herald, lost $2.1 million in the First Quarter. A year ago, McClatchy lost $2 million during the same period, so the company is nothing if not consistent.

Advertising sales plunged 6.8 percent in the First Quarter, worse than the 5.7 percent drop experienced in the Fourth Quarter of 2011. A ray of hope in the grim results was a 2.7 percent increase in digital ad sales, the hope of the newspaper industry.

McClatchy's CEO Gary Pruitt next month will bring his non-Midas touch to the Associated Press where he will take the helm as CEO.

Judge Tosses Failed U.S. Senate Candidate's Libel Suit

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In Jeffrey Greene v. Times Publishing Co. et al. (Case No. 10-47749-CA 32), Judge Valeria Manno-Schurr of the 11th Judicial Circuit Court of Miami-Dade County  dismissed defamation claims against The Miami Herald and The St. Petersburg Times brought by billionaire real estate mogul Jeffrey Greene, who blamed his Democratic U.S. Senate primary loss to Kendrick Meek on the dailies' coverage of him (see "TUOL" post 9/7/10).

Greene is expected to appeal the decision concerning three articles and what he alleged in his voluminous complaint were 22 purportedly libelous statements that harmed his business and campaign effort. Judge Manno-Schurr ruled a Times editorial was entirely opinion and not susceptible to a defamatory meaning. Likewise, she held that an article detailing alleged drug use and bad boy behavior on Greene's yacht by former heavyweight champ Mike Tyson and cohorts, who was best man at Greene's wedding, could not defame the plaintiff because it neither suggested he participated in nor even witnessed  the allegedly nefarious goings-on.

A third article involving a condo deal in which Greene participated with a California businessman who subsequently was indicted for mortgage fraud unrelated to his association with Greene was not defamatory either, according to the court, because the plaintiff failed to show any misstatements by the media defendants rose to the level of actual malice. (Tip of the hat to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, www.rcfp.org, for following up on this case.)