I hadn't really thought of this angle while I followed the ridiculous Bubba the Love Sponge trial in Tampa, but Radio Ink has a good point today. If it's defamation to say horrible things about your radio competitors, then hasn't Howard Stern been guilty of it for something like 30 years?
From today's Radio Ink...
"As the jury awaits instructions in the Bubba The Love Sponge defamation lawsuit Wednesday, we spoke to someone who can certainly relate to Todd "MJ" Schnitt's situation. John DeBella was the radio king in Philadelphia from 1984-1989... In 1986, Howard Stern was being piped into Philadelphia on WYSP. And, as Stern did with every top-rated morning show he competed against, he went right after DeBella. There was the typical name-calling, and long tirades with Stern delivering nasty, nonstop verbal assaults. Then came the more personal attacks. When DeBella and his wife were having issues, Stern threw a "divorce party." Stern did eventually become number one in Philadelphia, which led to gloating that culminated in Stern's making a trip to Philly to stage a mock funeral for DeBella in Rittenhouse Square, right below the windows of WMMR. Stern even burned DeBella in effigy. For his part, DeBella never engaged on the air with Stern, and he says not once did he consider filing a lawsuit against Stern for the things he was saying."
Not that what Howard did was OK, but it really wasn't that unusual. In Chicago we had several jocks who did stuff like that on the air. I was personally slandered reguarly by one of them.
I never filed suit either.
I figured it was just part of the business.
