I’m a Rutgers University Alumnus.
I cheered for the Rutgers Women’s Basketball Team during their drive to the Final Four.
I think that Don Imus was a complete and total idiot for saying what he did about them.
Nonetheless, I think this ranks among one of the most frivolous lawsuits I’ve seen in some time:
Don Imus is facing his first lawsuit from a player on the Rutgers Women’s Basketball team for derogatory comments that cost him his job as a radio host in April, ABC News has learned.
Kia Vaughn, star center for the Rutgers Women’s Basketball team, has filed a lawsuit against Imus for libel, slander and defamation — the first civil suit to be filed against the former radio host. Vaughn is asking for monetary damages of an unspecified amount.
This is a lawsuit in order to restore the good name and reputation of my client, Kia Vaughn,” said her attorney, Richard Ancowitz, in an exclusive interview with the ABC News Law & Justice Unit.
The suit names Imus individually, but it is also waged against MSNBC, NBC Universal, CBS Radio, CBS Corp., Viacom Inc., Westwood One Radio and Imus producer Bernard McGuirk.
Did Imus say something offensive ? Certainly.
Does it rise to the level of defamation of a specific individual ? Considering (1) that no specific person was named and (2) it was made as part of an (admittedly bad) joke, I think the answer is clearly no.
This strikes me as nothing more than a little bit of financial blackmail.
