You would not expect to hear that from a lawyer, would you?
But this is ridiculous.
Don Imus Sued by Rutgers Basketball Player
Don Imus is facing his first lawsuit from a player on the Rutgers Women's Basketball team for derogatory comments that cost him his job as a radio host in April, ABC News has learned.
Kia Vaughn, star center for the Rutgers Women's Basketball team, has filed a lawsuit against Imus for libel, slander and defamation -- the first civil suit to be filed against the former radio host. Vaughn is asking for monetary damages of an unspecified amount.
"This is a lawsuit in order to restore the good name and reputation of my client, Kia Vaughn," said her attorney, Richard Ancowitz, in an exclusive interview with the ABC News Law & Justice Unit.
The suit names Imus individually, but it is also waged against MSNBC, NBC Universal, CBS Radio, CBS Corp., Viacom Inc., Westwood One Radio and Imus producer Bernard McGuirk.
Today's suit refers to terms used by Imus April 4 -- including referring to women on the team as "nappy headed" -- as "debasing, demeaning, humiliating, and denigrating" to Vaughn and her fellow players. "There's no way these bigoted remarks should have seen the light of day," Ancowitz told ABC News.
"Don Imus referred to my client as an unchaste woman. That was and is a lie."
Of the networks that aired "Imus in the Morning," the lawsuit alleges that they "wrongfully, intentionally, willfully ... created, tolerated and maintained an atmosphere in which the making of outrageous statements and comments was acceptable, encouraged, and/or rewarded for many years prior to this occurrence and/or overtly encouraged the statements made."
The lawsuit alleges that use of the slanderous terms was intentional and motivated by greed and financial gain: In using insults against otherwise innocent people, Imus would get higher ratings, making more money for him and his employers. Among other infractions, the suit alleges that Imus violated the players' civil rights.
Robert Baker, a civil trial lawyer in California, says the high visibility of Imus' comments would help Vaughn in court.
"Everyone knows how unwarranted those comments were. It makes it easier for them to win their case," Baker told ABC News.
"She has a slander per se case -- the word itself was something derogatory. She doesn't even have to prove that she was damaged."
Earlier today, The Associated Press reported that Imus had reached a multimillion-dollar settlement with former employer CBS over his firing. ABC News has learned that Imus could be back to broadcasting as early as January, and is being courted by major media outlets. That settlement, said Ancowitz, rewards Imus while leaving little justice for the women of the Rutgers basketball team.
"He's come out smelling like quite the rose. But what about these young women? How does Imus' victory affect their self-esteem? Where do they go to get their reputations back?"
Ancowitz said the timing of today's lawsuit had nothing to do with Imus' possible return to the airwaves. Vaughn herself was not available for comment. The 20-year-old, 6 foot 4 inch New York native is in the midst of exams before starting her junior year at Rutgers University this fall.
Vaughn's lawyer said that some of the money from any damages awarded in the lawsuit would be used to create a scholarship program to study the effects of bigoted and misogynistic speech on society.
Imus' attorneys would not comment on the case. NBC and MSNBC refused to comment on a lawsuit neither had yet seen. CBS News did not immediately provide comment.
http://www.abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/story?id=3479449&page=1
This makes me a little bit insane. WHY in God's name does the whole world think a lawsuit will fix things? I do not understand it. Just because there may be a remedy in law, does not mean everyone should use it everytime someone sneezes in the wrong direction.
I am not defending Don Imus. He is a bigot, clearly. He make some stupid stupid comments that have cost him millions of dollars, and I bet he regrets it. Whether he does or not, suing him will not change a dang thing. I am sorry for the women of the Rutgers Team having been subjected to it, but let's not kid ourselves--no one in the world thinks differently of them because of Imus' stupid comments. If you do not like him, do not listen to him. Implore other people to not listen to him.
But SUE HIM?
Are you kidding me?
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Back away from the Court House!
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7 comments:
If the amount of money,attention, effort and the like spent on this particular issue was spent on things that really had an impact on the world today - maybe we would all be a tad better off -
--I agree with Paige - that was he said was wrong, but he's been fired for it, lost millions, apologized, etc.. - beating a dead horse (seems appropriate on this blog) doesn't begin to describe this scenario--
That is a good point--don't we all have bigger things to worry about? or SHOULDN'T WE? I do not condone him in any way, but this is a country of free speech--if you don't like it, don't listen to it.
There are worse things than being called a nappy-headed ho--especially when it is not directed at a single individual. I think it is worse being known as a money-hungry opportunist, but what do I know. Maybe I will get sued now
Bottom line and we all know what the motivation behind this suit is $$$$$$$$$. Or is it called opportunity knocks? I bet their mommas have called them worse, but their mommas don’t have millions either.
It makes me berserk that people seem to think that suing someone is akin to having an actual JOB. When lay people go to court more than I do, something is out of whack!
I dunno......I'm of 2 minds.
One one hand, I think Imus needs to be reined in and if money does it.....so be it.
On the other hand, I don't know these girls, wouldn't know them to see them and very likely many thousands of other people wouldn't know them either so how much *actual* damage was done to their reputation(s)?
We are the most sue-happy culture in the world. Everyone thinks that they're stickin' it to the man when they exploit an incident like this. It's embarassing and so excessive. If you took 1% of the cases and applied that money to the Illinois state budget, you wouldn't have been asking for your paycheck at all...
I suspect that this is a publicity stunt. Why would one want that kind of attention drawn to them?
Should the afflicted person just "let it go", then no one would have paid any attention to it and it would have been yesterdays news in no time.
Being as she decided to sue, I suspect that the team needed to draw more attention to it and this was a good opportunity to do so. Winning a lawsuit or not is secondary. The publicity recieved just from the purposed suit though..... Well it's free publicity. Look at how many people are talking about it. It's all over the news too. More revenue brought in by ticket purchases. Personally, I think it's a big waste of time and money.
Freedom of Speech, When did we loose That freedom?
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