[Our own Thomas Leavitt, a prolific Politech contributor, is the fellow getting sued. Glad to know that he's getting first-rate legal help from Paul and the other folks at Public Citizen. --Declan] --- To: declanat_private From: Earl Hood <earlat_private> Subject: Public Citizen to defend SavageStupidity.com co-founders against $500,000 lawsuit by Michael Savage Date: Wed, 04 Jun 2003 15:06:01 -0500 Declan, Your previous posts related to this: <http://www.politechbot.com/p-04696.html> <http://www.politechbot.com/p-04691.html> <http://www.savagestupidity.com/pr-06-03-2003-publiccitizen.html>: June 3rd, 2003 SANTA CRUZ, CA - SavageStupidity.com's co-founders, Thomas and Gunilla Leavitt, announced today that Public Citizen, a nationally prominent non-profit public interest law firm, has agreed to defend them from a lawsuit filed by Talk Radio Network, Inc. TRN syndicates "The Savage Nation", a nationally broadcast radio talk show hosted by the infamous Michael Savage (née Weiner). "The Weiner has demonstrated his contempt for free speech by filing this lawsuit, and we intend to dispute it vigorously," said Thomas and Gunilla. SavageStupidity.com will also be represented by David Bradford, a partner specializing in complex litigation at the prestigious Chicago-based national law firm of Jenner & Block, who will act as local counsel in the case. On May 12th TRN filed a federal lawsuit asking for $500,000 in damages due to "lost advertising and business opportunities", in an attempt to permanently shut down three web sites containing detailed criticism of Michael Savage and encouraging consumer boycotts of advertisers on his radio and television shows. Filed in a Northern Illinois court, the suit claims that Culligan International Company canceled a contract for advertising on "The Savage Nation" worth more than $100,000 after receiving "false and malicious" email from the web site owners and their readers. Others named in the lawsuit are a John Doe (responsible for michaelsavagesucks.com), and Julie Sigwart, owner of Take Back the Media (takebackthemedia.com), both of whom also vigorously dispute the merits of TRN's claims. ... ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ Like Politech? Make a donation here: http://www.politechbot.com/donate/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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