Defamation
Ex-NBC Reporter Sues Rival CBS Station for Airing Damaging Video
Posted Jul 8, 2008, 06:00 am CDT
By Molly McDonough
A year after a CBS station in Chicago aired an embarrassing tape showing a rival reporter wearing a bikini at the home of a source, the reporter has answered with a multimillion-dollar suit.
Former NBC 5 reporter Amy Jacobson claims that the tape is carefully edited to depict an illicit relationship between her and Craig Stebic, a Chicago-area man whose estranged wife Lisa has been missing since April 2007, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.
Jacobson had been covering the story of Lisa Stebic's disappearance when she said she answered a call to visit the Stebic home. Jacobson, who had reportedly been on her way to a health club to swim with her children, swung by and allowed her children to play in Craig Stebic's backyard pool instead.
The visit was captured on video and aired on WBBM-Channel 2. Jacobson, who was subsequently fired, claims defamation, invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
In addition to CBS and higher-ups at the station, Jacobson's suit names a source in the story, Michele Weldon, an assistant journalism professor at Northwestern University. Also named is Stebic's neighbor, Tracy Reardon, from whose bedroom window the secret video was shot, the Sun-Times reports.
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Posted by kay sieverding - 1 month, 1 week, 5 days, 6 hours, 48 minutes ago
I am glad when people sue for media torts because I think it makes it easier for my complaint. I complained that the Steamboat Pilot republished fraudulent statements for the purpose of hurting me. I was incarcerated, without a criminal charge, by Judge Edward Nottingham at the request of Faegre & Benson for 5 months for filing civil actions complaining about intentional and ongoing republications of fraudulent statements with no attempt by the publisher or their attorney to prove that the statements were not republications of fraudulent statements. Faegre & Benson said I wasn’t entitled to an evidentiary hearing, a jury trial, or to consult a lawyer before being sent to jail. I think that a right to complain about defamation is a common law right, recognized by the U.N. and part of the state remedies clause. I think it’s disgusting when organizations claiming to be legitimate try to sell advertising by hurting people. Plus, I think putting me in jail for non fraudulent use of the courts violated Title 18.