May 25 – A day when I love lawyers
May 25th, 2006 by Adam
Everything was going fine until a comment Artie Lang made - about the similarities between this chocolate covered Twinkie and Crystal’s boyfriend – in a way he had not intended.
I’m not sure if there is a PR connection here, but I consider these the top legal stories of the day (and maybe year):
CBS Radio to Settle Lawsuit Against Howard Stern, Court Clerk Says
New York – CBS Radio has settled its lawsuit against Howard Stern, in which it alleged the shock jock improperly used his last months on terrestrial radio to promote his jump to satellite radio, Reuters reported. An official in a court clerk’s office in New York said the two sides have reached a settlement, although spokespeople for both sides told Reuters that although a settlement agreement may exist, it has not yet been signed by both sides. “The only response we’re authorized to give you is the settlement agreement is not yet signed. We will release a statement when it is,” the office of Peter Parcher, lawyer for Stern, told Reuters. Howard Stern signed a $500 million, five-year deal to bring his show to Sirius Satellite Radio in October 2004. CBS alleged in its lawsuit that Stern breached his existing contract with them when he promoted Sirius in the months leading up to his debut on the service in January 2006.
Reuters
More at the yawn corporate site and the often entertaining Howard Stern Sirius experience.
My PR take: CBS should focus more on the utter destruction of their radio franchise. They’ve taken a jewel that Mel Karmazin, Howard Stern and Robin Quivers created and destroyed it. As noted on our sister/brother/orphan blog Pop Culture Gems CBS suits like Joel Hollander and fairly-nice-guy- who-should-retire Tom Cheap-asano are clueless about current radio and especially the significance of pay per view TV. Reminder: CBS had a Howard Stern Saturday night TV show in its hands and completely stifled it.
I’ve advised two clients during my 14 years of media relations that court issues are a distraction to their businesses and should be avoided at all cost (ha ha, get it, cost?).
OK, obvious I know, but why don’t other non-clients follow that idea !!!
The other amazing, joyful legal news of the day needs no links or commentary:
Skilling, Lay Guilty in Enron Fraud
Charges Were Tied to Energy-Trading Giant’s Collapse; Lay ‘Shocked’ by Verdict
Lay and Skilling were found guilty on most counts in their fraud and conspiracy trial. The landmark case grew out of Enron’s December 2001 collapse into bankruptcy and sparked corporate and governmental reforms. Lay, Enron’s former chairman, said he was “shocked” by the verdict and maintained his innocence. Sentencing is set for Sept. 11. Overturning the verdicts will be a long shot, legal specialists say.
“Your typical white-collar defendant has a better chance of winning a Golden Globe award than getting his conviction reversed in the Fifth Circuit,” says one lawyer.
Oops, I just noticed the connection: Howard Stern and Artie Lang deserve their Golden Globes for many years of inspirational, incredible works of art.
This entry was posted on Thursday, May 25th, 2006 at 7:28 pm and is filed under PR. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
May 26th, 2006 at 1:03 pm
Part 1 of my comments/responses to myself …
Dear Adam Zand,
Who the heck do you think you are connecting these stories and also suggesting through a tacky photo that Lay and Skillings are di#@s? I’m outraged and might not read your blog for the rest of the day.
May 26th, 2006 at 1:12 pm
Dear Adam Zand (if that’s your real name),
Regarding the significance of my posts, we are talking about huge sums of money that effects people’s life savings (Enron’s crooks crushed people) and their choices about what media outlets they want in their homes/cars without pressure from government and religious extremists (or both in our current regime).
To the latter point about access to fun programming, I’m thrilled to share this great news from Sirius:
(New York, N.Y.) Sirius Satellite Radio, a subscription radio service with 4.1 million subscribers, has reaffirmed that it expects to count 6.2 million
subscribers by the end of the year, just hours after rival XM Satellite Radio lowered its 2006 subscriber forecast to 8.5 million from 9 million. If Sirius’
projections pan out, the company would see an 87% subscriber increase in 2006, with the addition of 2.8 million net new subscribers during the year.
XM shares fell 11% on Wednesday after the company lowered its subscriber and revenue forecasts for 2006.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/060524/nyw178.html?.v=34
As noted somewhere on a blog or two, when I get some disposable income or Howard Stern moves to an MP3 play/podcasting medium, I’m joining in to.
Hey Howard and Mel K., please read my recent hit for Podcast Ready: http://www.wired.com/news/columns/1,70884-0.html
P.S. People who talk to themselves are actually fairly normal and adjusted.
May 27th, 2006 at 6:33 pm
This post on the significance of Howard Stern and new media from Fraser Kelton’s DisruptiveThoughts is awesome:
http://disruptivethoughts.com/2006/05/25/a-lesson-on-new-media-from-howard-stern-or-how-not-to-make-500-million-from-ad-sense/#comments