Two radio legal news stories in this mornings’s Tom Taylor newsletter.
A magistrate in Oregon has accepted the request to toss out Talk Radio Network’s antitrust lawsuit accusing everyone else of causing them to lose their business model. Most of their ire was directed at Westwood One who handled distribution and “repping” their products to radio station. TRN already settled with Cumulus (who bought Westwood One), so suing them again probably was not a good idea. They also went after companies that hired away their talent like Laura Ingraham. In the case of Michael Savage, TRN appealed all the way to the US Supreme Court and lost, so even if the magistrate enters a directed verdict, it probably isn’t over.
The other news item is that Glenn Beck settled the lawsuit in Boston. Unable to produce the alleged Homeland Security source who told Beck’s producer that the student from Saudi Arabia was the “money man” who organized the Boston Marathon bombing, Beck had no defense. The judge had already ruled that the person was not a public figure, so there was no need to prove malice, just that it caused damage. The details of the settlement are confidential.