Super Bowl Ad Rates Thrown for a Loss

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Though still the priciest buy on tv at $2.5 million to $2.8 million for a 30-second ad, the Super Bowl, which airs Feb. 7 on CBS, has been victimized by the nation's faltering economy.

According to TNS Media Intelligence, the ad rates commanded by CBS this year fall short of the $3 million price tag for a 30-second spot that NBC netted when it broadcast the NFL championship game last year. Still, only 4 of 62 commercial slots remain unsold as of last week, though long-time advertisers, such as Pepsi and General Motors, took a pass on this year's broadcast, which is expected to attract 100 million viewers.

Traditionally, Super Bowl commercials often generate more excitement than the game itself, and enjoy a longer shelf life, courtesy of YouTube and other Web sites. Each year, roughly a quarter of the Super Bowl advertisers are new, according to TNS. Not counting pregame and postgame commercials, the 2009 Super Bowl generated $213 million in advertising revenue, TNS said.

The hard-working staff of "TUOL" always capitalizes on Super Bowl Sunday by dining out at near-empty restaurants and pondering when pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training.  Nevertheless, "TUOL" promises there will be hell to pay unless at least one high-priced commercial features chimpanzees.

Supreme Court Stays Streaming Broadcast of Trial in Calif. Gay Marriage Ban Case

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The U.S. Supreme Court today issued a stay preventing the streaming broadcast of a San Francisco trial challenging Califonia's Proposition 8 ban on gay marriage, Perry v. Schwarzenegger (Case. No. 3:09-cv-02292).

The High Court's order, which is in effect until Weds. Jan. 13, freezes the ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Vaughan Walker, that would have permitted real-time streaming of the trial. Proponents of  broadcasting the trial cited overwhelming public interest in the case, but opponents said a "media circus" would ensue and that witnesses and attorneys could be subject to harassment and intimidation from supporters of gay marriage.

Judge Says Press May Cover Hearsay Hearing in Peterson Murder Case

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Will County (Ill.) Circuit Judge Stephen White will allow press coverage of testimony from 15 hearsay witnesses for the prosecution in the case of  People of the State of Illinois v. Drew Walter Peterson (Case. No. 09CF1048).

Peterson, a former police officer in Bollingbrook, Ill., is accused of drowning Kathleen Savio, his third wife, in 2004. Peterson's attorneys on Dec. 19 asked Judge White to close the courtroom during the hearing, which is mandatory under a hearsay evidence law recently enacted in Illinois. Defense counsel said the anticipated testimony would be highly prejudicial, but Judge White found no basis for closing the hearing to the public.

Google Defers to Writers Group: Won't Scan Books in China Without Author's OK

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Since its inception in 1949, the 8,000-member China Writers Association (CWA") has been the liasion between China's authors and the Chinese Communist government, so challenging online behemoth Google was child's play for the CWA.

Google sent a letter Jan.. 9 that has been posted on the CWA Web site in which Google apologizes for "inadequate communications" with Chinese authors regarding Google's scanning and uploading of books without authors' permission into its online library.  Absent authorization from a book's creator, Google will no longer scan books in China.

Author Mian Mian charged Google with copyright infringement Dec. 30. The matter has yet to be decided by the Chinese court, but the author's work has been removed from Google's online library.

China boasts 338 million Internet users, according to its government.

What Took Them So Long?

Almost one-term former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has signed a mult-year deal to be a contributor to Fox News Channel.

Financial details of the agreement have not been released, and ex-Gov. Palin's representatives have not commented. Reportedly, she will from time-to-time host programs that will appear on FNC. Palin, whom conservative NY Times columnist David Brooks has said "represents a fatal cancer to the Republican Party," joins a stable of contributors who include Iran  Contragate star Col. Oliver North, who hosts FNC's "War Stories" documentary series on the military.

Fox TV already airs a prime time show titled "Lie to Me."

Carry Me Back to Old Virginia

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The intrepid staff of "TUOL" is headed to Virginia Beach for the weekend, and will resume posting on Monday, Jan. 11.

Don't talk to strangers while I'm away.

Mass. SJC Renders 'Enterprising' Libel Decision

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Massachusetts' longstanding tradition of recognizing a fair and accurate reporting privilege of official statements and actions as a defense to defamation claims received a shot in the arm today from the Supreme Judicial Court ("SJC") ruling in the 2005 case, Howell v. Enterprise.

The SJC reversed the lower court's denial of the Brockton Enterprise's summary judgment motion on libel and intentional infliction of emotional distress claims, in dismissing the case brought by an official from the Town of Abington who was the subject of 11 Enterprise articles from May 2005, to Nov. 2005, regarding his alleged use of town computers to access pornography.

The SJC opinion by Justice Robert Cordy said the high court must be: "on alert for two sorts of reporting errors: mistakes in reporting what actually happened (accurate), and liberties taken in reporting the character of what actually happened (fair). We examine both through the lens of the reasonable recipient of the report to gauge the substantiality of the report's accuracy and fairness." The SJC goes on to include that the newspaper's reports were both substantially accurate and fair.

The SJC opinion further states that the fairness and accuracy privilege should be liberally construed by courts.

Whirlybird Reporter Job on Station's Chopper Block

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Forty-five-year-old Yarmouth, Mass., native Doug Meehan finds himself in the dubious position of being the answer to the following tv news trivia questions: "Who was Boston's first tv helicopter reporter?" and "Who was Boston's last tv helicopter reporter?"

Meehan, part of the original team on the Fox 25 (WFXT-TV-25) morning news show that debuted in the Hub in 2003, is permanently grounded, as the station will eliminate his position and not renew his contract that expires next week.  Meehan, a traffic and entertainment reporter, has not patroled the skies of Boston since June, when Fox 25 and WBZ-TV Channel 4 decided to share the use of a news helicopter as a cost-savings measure (see "TUOL" post 5/20/09).

Though never mistaken for Edward R. Murrow, Meehan's goofy demeanor was popular with viewers, so his departure may  be Helicopter to pay for Fox.

Newspaper Reporter: A Labor of (No) Love

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Those of you troubled by last year's ranking of the 200 best and worst jobs in the U.S. conducted by Careercast.com that placed newspaper reporter at number 140, take heart--the 2010 survey ranks newspaper reporters at number 184.

The Careercast.com ranking is based on the five criteria of  environment, employment outlook, physical demands, and the two that sank newshounds--income and stress level.  The 2010 ranking of ink-stained wretches falls between "seamen" at #183 and stevedore at #185.  Janitors (#83) and Chauffeurs (#160) bested the descendants of Hildy Johnson. Few jobs were deemed worse than newspaper reporter, but included dairy farmers (#197) who have lost their whey, ironworkers (#198) because of their lack of mettle, and bringing up the rear, "roustabout" (#200)--the unskilled temporary laborer, not the 1964 Elvis Presley movie, which would have ranked much lower.

If you're wondering, the top five jobs in the survey were actuary, software engineer, computer systems analyst, biologist, and historian, and no one who holds these jobs can hold their liquor as well as newspaper reporters, so there.

Jordan Gives Grocery Chains the Air

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"I wanna sue like Mike."

Basketball legend Michael Jordan has an usual way of expressing his gratitude. When Sports Illustrated published a commemorative issue, Jordan: Celebrating a Hall of Fame Career, honoring the All-Star guard who led the Chicago Bulls to six championships, local supermarket giants Jewel Food Stores, Inc., and Dominick's Finer Foods, LLC each paid for a full-page ad in the magazine congratulating Air Jordan.

Jordan was moved by the gesture, all the way to Cook County Circuit Court, where he filed separate suits against the grocers on December 21. The cases, Michael Jordan & Jump 23, Inc. v. Dominicks Finer Foods, LLC (No. 2009LO15548) and Michael Jordan v. Jewel Food Stores, Inc. (No. 2009LO15549), view the congratulatory ads as an unauthorized attempt to link the basketball great to their supermarkets.

The suits include claims for trademark infringement under Sec. 32 of the Lanham Act (15 U.S.C. sec. 1114),  False Endorsement, False Designation of Origin, and Dilution under Sec. 43 of the Lanham Act (15 U.S.C. sec. 1125(a)(c)), unfair competition, violation of the Illinois Right of Publicity Act (765 ILCS 1075/1-60), and violation of the Illiniois Consumer Fraud & Trade Practices Act (815 ILCS 505/2 et seq.).

Jordan, who holds a registered trademark on his name, went after Dominick's for its ad, the top half of which featured his trademark number 23 and words of congratulations, while the bottom half sported a coupon for a Ranchers Reserve steak, which Jordan claims directly competes with steakhouses that bear his name as well as a direct mail steak company. The Jewel ad depicts a pair of Air Jordan sneakers with the number 23 on the tongues and includes words of praise, along with Jewel's "just around the corner" slogan.

The suits seek attorneys' fees, unspecified damages, and to prevent the grocers from using Jordan's name in future ads. "TUOL" will keep you posted as information on the case dribbles in.

The Face of TV News?

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Television analyst Andrew Tyndall, who tracks evening newscasts, reports that NBC correspondent Andrea Mitchell logged the most "face time" of any broadcast journalist over the past decade.

For those of you keeping score, Mitchell logged 2,416 minutes on the NBC Nightly News during the past decade. Before the nation's economy collapsed, one could argue that Mitchell's husband, former Federal Reserve Board chief Alan Greenspan, appeared on tv more than Ronald McDonald, and at least Mitchell sports a better "mug" than her spouse.

Siegal-Kardashian Libel Suit Will Make You Toss Your Cookies

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A titanic legal struggle is being waged in the Circuit Court of the 11th Judicial Circuit for Miami-Dade County, Florida, involving Dr. Sanford Siegal, famed cookie-diet doctor, and Kim Kardashian, famed, uh, Kardashian.

The case, Dr. Sanford Siegal & Dr. Siegal's Direct Nutritionals, LLC v. Kim Kardashian (Case No. 09-93439CA15), concerns four counts of defamation brought by the plaintiffs against the 29-year-old co-star of the E! reality show, Keeping Up with the Kardashians and Dancing With the Stars also-ran, over two allegedly libelous tweets in October 2009.

As initially reported in The Hollywood Reporter, Esq. blog, Siegal, a Miami-based doctor who hawks a weight-loss program in tv appearances and on his Web site, www.cookiediet.com, sent samples of his products to Kardashian's publicist, and subsequently, posted a hyperlink to a Kardashian weight loss article on his Web site. He later removed the hyperlink after getting a lawyer letter from Kardashian's counsel.

Kardashian, no stranger to endorsing products, who earns as much as $10,000 per "tweet" and boasts more than 2.7 million followers on her Twitter account (that ticking sound you heard was the Doomsday Clock advancing 10 minutes), was aghast at what she purportedly considered a craven attempt by the good Doctor to create the impression that she was endorsing his cookies.  The battle royale was on after Kardashian's following alleged October 2009, tweets: "Dr. Siegal's cookie diet is falsely promoting that I'm on his diet. NOT TRUE! I would never do this unhealthy diet! I do QuickTrim!"; and "If this Dr. Siegal is lying about me being on this diet, what else are they lying about? Not cool!" In other words, there has been no Kardashian cookie display, unless you count her December 2007, photo spread in Playboy or Internet well-traveled sex home video with R&B singer RayJ.

In their Complaint, the plaintiffs allege that not only are the subject tweets harmful to their reputations, but also fail to acknowledge that Kardashian is a paid spokesperson for QuickTrim. The Complaint does not accuse Kardashian of exceeding the morally acceptable limit of exclamation points in tweets. Sooner or later, "TUOL" believes the freshly minted FTC disclosure guidelines for celebrities and bloggers, as well as the "fair comment" libel defense that holds one's opinions are not actionable, will turn up in this non-precedent-setting legal battle.

Katie Couric Part II: The Perfect Face for Radio?

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Stalwart Boston radio station WBZ-AM (1030), starting tonight, and every weeknight thereafter, will air the initial segment, usually 10 minutes in length, of the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric at 6:30 p.m.

WBZ will resume its usual news format following the portion of  the Couric newscast.  Additionally, Couric will discuss the day's top stories each Wednesday with WBZ-AM  host Diane Stern. WBZ's sister station in New York, WCBS-AM, already airs the Couric segment.

Sounds like a great opportunity for Bostonians to hear Morgan Freeman on the radio (see previous "TUOL" post).

'God' Supplants Cronkite on CBS Evening News Intro

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His authoritative, sonorous voice has landed him roles as God (Bruce Almighty), Nelson Mandela (Invictus), and President of the U.S. (Deep Impact). Now, beginning Monday, Katie Couric will take her cue from Morgan Freeman.

The revered Oscar-winning actor has recorded the introduction to the CBS Evening News, which will replace the lead-in recorded by the late legendary CBS anchor Walter Cronkite, who died last July.  Cronkite's introduction has been used since Couric began her anchor duties on the evening newscast in 2006.

CBS officials said supplanting Cronkite with Freeman gives the network voiceover flexibility for when Couric does special reports or on-location broadcasts. The move also gives CBS box office "cred" to match the NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams, which has boasted Oscar-winner Michael Douglas as its announcer since 2007. Discovery's Dirty Jobs host Mike Rowe handles the introduction duties for ABC's World News with Diane Sawyer.

"TUOL" is a big fan of the 72-year-old Freeman (even forgiving him for his credit card commercials voiceover and appearance in The Love Guru), but can't overlook the symbolism in CBS distancing itself from the most trustworthy hard newsman Cronkite in favor of  a Hollywood actor at a time when network evening newscasts are less informative and relevant, and more eager to pursue celebrity news and gossip.

Palin Part II: 'You've Got Mail...'

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Former GOP vice-presidential nominee and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's practice of  favoring her personal Email account over her government Email address has sparked a debate in the state nicknamed "Seward's Folly" concerning whether state employees' personal Emails should be treated as public records.

During her abbreviated tenure as Alaska's Governor, Palin instructed family members, advisors, and her Chief of Staff to Email her at gov.sarah@yahoo.com, instead of at governor@gov.state.ak.us because "everyone and their mother will be able to read Emails that arrive via that state address." Gawker published a number of Gov. Palin's missives from her private account after a college student hacked into her Yahoo address.

Emails from government accounts must be preserved under state records retention laws, which, according to a story in The Alaska Dispatch (http://www.alaskadispatch.com/dispatches/politics/3484-palin-personal-emails) has prompted a public records request for the release of Palin's Yahoo Emails to determine if government business was being carried out in her private account.

Look for the legislature and the courts in the "Land of the Midnight Sun" to weigh in on this topic.  For now, it is unresolved whether Alaskans will be able to say: "I can see Sarah Palin's Emails from my house!"

Court Says Bristol and Levi Custody Rex Public--Tabloids Exhale

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Alaska Superior Court Judge Kari Kristiansen has denied Bristol Palin's request for a gag order to block public access to the records in her ongoing custody battle with Levi Johnston over their one-year-old son Tripp.

The Anchorage Daily News further reports that Judge Sharon Gleason, the judicial district's presiding judge, rejected Palin's request to use the pseudonyms John Doe and Jane Doe for all filings with the Court. Palin, 19, petitioned the court Nov. 4 for sole physical and legal custody of Tripp and sought child support from the 19-year-old Johnston. Johnston is seeking shared legal and physical custody of his son.

Palin asked for a gag order as being in her child's best interests, but Johnston wants the custody proceedings open to the press as a check against former Gov. Sarah Palin's "instinct to attack," according to an affidavit filed by his counsel.

Bristol Palin's pregnancy announcement coincided with her mother's selection by Sen. John McCain as the vice-presidential candidate on the GOP ticket in the 2008 presidential election. The young parents split up shortly after Tripp's birth.

Pirates Plunder Paramount Pictures

Cover of Star Trek

Paramount Pictures' 2009 twin box-office killings: Star Trek, featuring Chris Pines' star-making turn as Capt. James T. Kirk, and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, featuring Megan Fox' mechanical acting, topped the list of films most purloined by online pirates, according to TorrentFreak, a file-sharing tracking company.

J.J. Abrams' Star Trek grossed $258 million, while Michael Bay's Transformers sequel netted $402 million in domestic box office receipts for Viacom-owned Paramount, but pilferers preferred the former, illegally downloading the film "where no man has gone before" just under 11 million times, compared to 10.6 million pirated copies of Transformers, TorrentFreak estimates.

The 2009 entries in the wizard Harry Potter and vampire Twilight series also were among the top 10 bootlegged movies. The movie industry worldwide is believed to lose about $18 billion in revenues internationally, a third of  that in the U.S. alone, because of film piracy.

"TUOL" wonders if more adult fare shown at independent movie houses is absent from the TorrentFreak list because the audience for such films is more principled and law-abiding, or if the pirates are just unwilling to risk jail time for such a shrinking audience.

Happy New Year

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The intrepid staff at "TUOL" is out beating the hustings for media law, journalism, and pop culture items that will leave a mark in 2010.  Wishing devoted readers a happy and healthy New Year.

"The Unruly of Law" will resume posting on Jan. 4.

Commonwealth to Mass. Town: Holding Back Parking Scofflaw Data Not the Ticket

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Score one for the Watertown (Mass.) Tab as the Secretary of the Commonwealth's office sided with the weekly newspaper in its public records battle with Watertown officials over the release of parking scofflaw information.

Watertown officials cited the federal Drivers Privacy Protection Act [18 U.S.C. sec. 2721-2725] among other reasons in denying the Tab's request last May for the names, addresses and outstanding balance owed by Watertown's 10 top parking delinquents. The Tab sought the information under the Commonwealth's Public Records Law [M.G.L. c. 4, sec. 7(26)].

Alan N. Cote, the Commonwealth's Supervisor of Public Records, ordered the town to release the information in a letter dated Dec. 24, which stated that the federal drivers privacy statute was inapplicable. Under the Mass. law and corresponding public records access regulations [950 C.M.R. 32.00]: "Every document, paper, record, map, photograph, etc., as defined by law, that is made or received by a government entity or employee is presumed to be a public record." The Public Records Law includes 18 categories of exemptions, including certain personnel and medical records and law enforcement investigatory records.

Washington Times Not Giving a Sporting Chance

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The bad news keeps on coming for the Rev. Sun Myung Moon/Unification Church-owned Washington Times [see "TUOL" posts 12/3/09 & 11/9/09], which yesterday abolished its sports department and doled out pink slips to prominent editors.

Besides the entire sports department, among those let go were Barbara Slavin, asst. ME for world and national security; Ben Conery, Justice Dept. beat writer; and David Jones, Managing Editor of the print edition.

Though some may consider the mass weddings performed by Rev. Moon a contact sport, apparently Times management considered the highly regarded sports staff expendable.