Re: Jackass,Viacom&CBS

["Dan Billings" <dib9@gwi.net>]

People sue major companies like GM all the time and those suits are rarely
covered as news.  Such suits only become news when they raise serious
issues, like the Firestone tires situation.

In my opinion, the suit against Viacom over Jackass is without merit and
does not deserve serious coverage.  The only way the suit will be successful
is if Viacom settles to avoid bad publicity.  Under basic tort theory, the
plaintiffs would have a hard time showing that Viacom put the plaintiff at
risk with their actions and would have a hard time showing that Viacom's
actions caused the injuries.  Viacom may also have a First Amendment
defense.

Also, as I stated in an earlier post, I believe blaming a TV program for a
person's behavior is ridiculous.  I think the whole issue of blaming the
media for societal problems has received more publicity than it deserves.
Politicians on the left and right have played up the issue because it's
always good to have a bad guy to blame when things go wrong, and the media
is an easy target.

-- Dan Billings, Bowdoinham, Maine


----- Original Message -----
From: "Dave Faneuf" <tklaundry@juno.com>
To: <dib9@gwi.net>
Cc: <tklaundry@juno.com>; <boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org>
Sent: Thursday, May 31, 2001 5:55 PM
Subject: Re: Jackass,Viacom&CBS


> A lawsuit against a national media company.  So if a national media
> company is sued it is not news, but if someone decides to sue GM for
> example that is news?