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 XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX SUN APRIL 14 2002 14:22:08 ET XXXXX DEEP, DEEP POOH-POOH: FINKE LAWSUIT CLAIMS DISNEY IN ENRON-LIKE COVER UP **Exclusive Details* Here's one you wont be reading on Page Six. A reporter fired by the NEW YORK POST after WALT DISNEY CO complained about two of her stories filed a $10 million breach of contract and slander lawsuit late Friday against DISNEY, NEWS CORP and the POST. Pierce O'Donnell of O'Donnell & Shaffer represents Finke in the action, which alleges DISNEY is trying to cover up financial perils from shareholders [see ENRON] by trying to silence reporters like Finke. [O'Donnell, who smoked DISNEY last year in the GO.COM trademark claim for $22 million, has told associates: "This case is why I went to law school!"] MORE "[DISNEY head Michael] Eisner had a direct pipeline into the POST's newsroom," claims a source. Eisner's best friend is the father of the NY POST's metro editor. The editor is also best friends with Rupert Murdoch's two sons, James and Lachlan, who oversees the POST. Finke's Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit lists 11 causes of action, including intentional interference with contract, breach of contract, intentional infliction of emotional distress, libel and slander. The suit stems from her Feb. 19 firing over a pair of articles that ran in the POST on Jan. 29: "Pooh Scandal is ' $hred' Hot" and "Deep Pooh-Pooh". The stories, linked on the DRUDGE REPORT, described the long-running dispute between DISNEY and STEPHEN SLESINGER INC over royalties on Winnie the Pooh merchandise. Finke claims it was not the facts but the "tone" of those articles that antagonized DISNEY executives -- a tone she alleges was created in large part by POST editors through "inflammatory headlines, creating snide illustrations ... altering the text of the articles she had filed, adding references to 'shredding' of documents which did not appear in the Pooh Articles as filed by Finke, and deleting other language." "In their effort to find a scapegoat to punish for unflattering press accounts of DISNEY's behavior 21 days before the DISNEY annual shareholder meeting, DISNEY representatives -- without investigating whether Finke or others were responsible -- publicly blamed Finke for what they did not like, and the POST, instead of supporting Finke and acknowledging its responsibility for the 'tone,' cravenly tried to placate its business associate and major advertiser DISNEY," she alleges. "The only standup guy at the POST was Finke's editor, John Elsen, of the business section," claims a case insider. Finke claims DISNEY threatened "to pull all advertising from the POST and other NEWS CORP media outlets" unless she was fired. "This really is ENRON all over again!" notes one legal source. "ENRON tried to get reporters fired who were the first to write negative articles. It goes to the heart of the press informing the public, and shareholders....but if companies are in business together, in bed together, how can that happen? DISNEY and NEWS CORP do tons of business together, MOVIES.COM for one thing." In a Feb. 18 appearance on NEWS CORP's FOX NEWS CHANNEL, DISNEY attorney Daniel Petrocelli said several important parts of Finke's article were incorrect, according to the lawsuit, including her characterization of DISNEY's document destruction and assertion that Pooh products account for 25 percent of Disney's revenue. Petrocelli has called Finke's reporting on the story "recklessly inaccurate." Bert Fields, the attorney for SLESINGER, was not allowed to appear on FOX NEWS's O'REILLY FACTOR Finke alleges, despite his request. She claims the motive in presenting only Petrocelli's comments was for FOX "to serve as nothing more than an extension of the DISNEY public relations campaign." The POST fired Finke the day after the O'REILLY FACTOR airing. ----------------------------------------------------------- Reports are moved when circumstances warrant http://www.drudgereportArchives.com for updates (c)DRUDGE REPORT 2002 Not for reproduction without permission of the author |
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