2006 MLRC/NAA/NAB LIBEL DEFENSE ... - Directrouter.com

For exclusive use of MLRC members and other parties specifically authorized by MLRC. © Media Law Resource Center, Inc.The month of May is also a key sweeps period in the television industry and, as itturned out, the Fox in the Morning show lost forty percent of its viewers during that criticalratings month. As a result, format and personnel changes continued and the show fired JimBulleit, Divita’s co-worker who had originally set her up on her first date with John Ziegler.Following his termination by WDRB-TV, Bulleit was a guest on The John Ziegler Show onJune 20, 2003 and used that forum to criticize WDRB/FOX 41, its management, and theremaining Fox in the Morning show team. At that point, management at the local mediacompanies stepped in to this Reality Relationship chronology. Bill Lamb, the generalmanager of WDRB, which happened to be a regular advertiser on the local Clear Channelradio stations, called Bill Gentry, the general manager at WHAS Radio, to complain aboutthe treatment of his television station and its morning show team by John Ziegler. As aresult, WHAS management felt it was time to pull the Reality Relationship off its air. In lateJune, both Bill Gentry and Kelly Carls, the program director at WHAS Radio, told Zieglerthat he should stop talking about the personal lives of Darcie Divita and others at FOX 41 onhis radio show. Meanwhile, WDRB management made additional personnel changes on theFox in the Morning show and, as a result, the plug got pulled on Divita’s reality career inLouisville. After only seven months on the air, Divita’s employment was terminated byFOX 41.The August 22, 2003 Broadcast – He believed what he said and said what he believed.Friday, August 22, 2003 was Darcie Divita’s last day on Fox in the Morning inLouisville. Again, the Courier-Journal headlines of the day preceded the events: “WDRB’sEarly Show Losing Two Personalities.” The article went on to say, “She [Divita] signed onto be the host of more of an entertainment show,” Lamb said, and she was concerned aboutthe program’s move toward more of a straight newscast. “Divita was never hired to be anews anchor, but the co-host role really didn’t fit in the new format,” Lamb said. Zieglerinvited Divita to be a guest on his show on that Friday – her last day on the air. She did notcome on the show. But Ziegler’s listeners were interested and during a segment on his showthat day Ziegler discussed the “demise of Darcie Divita.” After mentioning that they wentout on several dates, he said, “I believe Darcie to have a problem with the truth. I believe it’spossible she may be pathological in her problems with telling the truth, especially when itcomes to how many people she’s dating and – where and when she is, and – and also thingsabout her background and her history, which don’t seem to jibe with what she says aboutherself, all of which, of course, basically, no matter how hot you are, makes you ineligible todate me, because you have to at least tell the truth. I mean, you can have the best fake breastsin the world, which Darcie does, by the way. Darcie has probably the best fake breasts.Whoever did her fake breasts deserves some sort of Nobel prize.” After a brief interruptionhe stated, “We’ve bashed the morning show pretty good,” and referred to Divita and her cohostDarrin as the “dork and the devil.” “She was the devil, he was the dork.” After ageneral discussion regarding FOX 41’s ratings, Ziegler talked about other topics of interestthat day.20