Court Cases

From this morning's mediabistro.com Newsfeed, the booking battle is on for Bernard Madoff. B&C reports a prison interview has become one of the next big targets for news producers. Even though the shady investor has been convicted and sentenced, public fascination and anger hasn't exactly died down. The article features thoughts from tvnewsers who are actively seeking an elusive sit-down, which, according to some, could take a while:

"We're definitely interested," says Jim Bell, executive producer of NBC's Today.

"There are so many stories surrounding the Madoff case," says Jeff Fager, executive producer of 60 Minutes on CBS. "It would be fascinating to hear from him."

"We have a coordinated effort," says Tom Cibrowski, executive producer of ABC's Good Morning America, adding that the network's "deep bench" of anchors, including Diane Sawyer and Barbara Walters, would relish the opportunity to cross-examine Madoff.

Click here to receive mediabistro.com's Daily Newsfeed via email.

HuffPo reports former FoxNews.com entertainment columnist Roger Friedman has gone ahead with a lawsuit against News Corp. seeking $5.18 million in damages for wrongful termination, tortious interference and libel defamation.

News Corp. fired Friedman in April after he reviewed a copy of 20th Century Fox's "Wolverine" that had leaked online.

Friedman was a guest on the Today show this morning reporting, not on his own case, but on the legal issues unfolding in the Michael Jackson story.

Reporting times of the Bernard Madoff sentencing:

FBN — 11:32:56
CNBC — 11:32:58
FNC — 11:33:09
MSNBC — 11:33:19
CNN — 11:33:56

After a five-day trial held behind closed doors, an Iranian court has sentenced Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi, to eight years in prison. The former Miss North Dakota, who'd been working in Iran as a freelance reporter, was convicted of spying for the United States.

31-year-old Saberi has reported for NPR, "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer", and Fox News Channel, among others as the Tehran bureau chief for Feature Story News. Her press credentials were revoked in 2006.

The Obama administration has called the charges against Saberi baseless and is demanding her release.

Saberi grew up in North Dakota and graduated from Concordia College. She was Miss North Dakota 1997 and worked briefly at KVLY-TV in Fargo.

> Update from an NPR interview with Saberi's father: "In the beginning...under pressure, she had made some statements. And later, when they questioned again, she denied, said that those things that she had said were not right. But they apparently, in the case, they didn't consider her denial. She is very weak and frail, last time we saw. And she wanted to go on hunger strike, but we persuaded her not to do so. And after this, most probably she will."

> More: Statement from NPR president Vivian Schiller - "We are deeply distressed by this harsh and unwarranted sentence. Ms. Saberi has already endured a three month confinement in Evin Prison, and we are very concerned for her well-being. Through her work for NPR over several years, we know her as an established and respected professional journalist. We appeal to all of those who share our concerns to ask that the Iranian authorities show compassion and allow her to return home to the Untied States immediately with her parents."

> More: Statement from ABC News - "We are distressed by the sentence of espionage delivered to our colleague Roxana Saberi today. There was no evidence of espionage made public and her trial was conducted in secret. Roxana's friends and colleagues at ABC News are extremely concerned for her well-being and our thoughts have been with Roxana and her family throughout this ordeal. We urge the Iranian government to release Roxana to her family immediately.

> More: Statement from Feature Story News president and chief correspondent - FSN's President and Chief Correspondent Simon Marks issued the following statement: "Roxana's conviction is an appalling miscarriage of justice - or what passes for justice in modern Iran. Our thoughts and sympathies go out to Roxana and her family at this extremely difficult time. We once again urge the Iranian authorities to release Roxana immediately into the custody of her family, so that she can make plans to return to the United States where she was born and raised"."

Bernie Madoff arrived at the Federal Courthouse in New York City 2 hours and 40 minutes before his court appearance at which he'll plead guilty to operating a $50 billion Ponzi scheme. For the first time, he'll explain how he did what he did. In order to accept a guilty plea, the judge must hear him describe his crimes.

The cable news channels, and one business news channel, carried the sentencing in the O.J. Simpson trial this afternoon. MSNBC has been in rolling coverage since the verdict, Fox News and CNN have been covering the verdict, but also working in other news.

We're not sure if he pulled out some fresh Ratherisms during campaign coverage on HDNet last night, but today it's all legalese for Dan Rather. A hearing in Rather's case against his former employer got underway at 4pmET in New York. CBS is submitting its response to Rather's request to "compel document production" from the independent panel investigation into Rather's 60 Minutes II report on Pres. Bush's military record.

CBS claims Rather, know for election night one-liners including "This race is shakier than cafeteria Jell-O" and "His lead is as thin as turnip soup," is attempting "to distort the Independent Panel's work into part of a conspiracy against Rather." Rather's lawyers contend, "CBS induced Mr. Rather to apologize personally on national television, to abandon his own further investigation and to stay silent about his belief in the truth of the story."

We'll let you know what happens in court.

• Click here to read the CBS brief.

• Click here to read the brief Rather's attorneys are presenting.

By the way, the headline to this story is a real Ratherism from election night 2000: "The presidential race still hotter than a Laredo parking lot."

>Update: From our court watcher: Justice Gammerman heard arguments on the motion, stated that he would review the lengthy submissions, but made no decisions today.

Gail Shister
TVNewser Columnist

O.J. who?

Thirteen years after O.J. Simpson's murder trial riveted viewers, his latest tango with the criminal justice system is a yawn, says CNN legal ace Jeffrey Toobin.

Toobin, who candidly acknowledges he owes his TV career to Simpson, has no plans to cover the ex-NFL star's armed robbery-and-kidnapping trial in Las Vegas. It began last Monday and is expected to last five weeks.

Funny part is, Toobin feels a tad guilty, despite how much he enjoys being part of The Best Political Team on Television.

"Considering how much O.J. has meant to my career, part of me wants to see the next stage of the story," says Toobin, 48, a Harvard Trifecta — graduate of the college, the law school and editor of Law Review.

"O.J. was the story that made my TV career, no doubt about it. It was my first best-selling book [The Run of His Life: The People v. O.J. Simpson]. I devoted more than two years of my life to it."

On the other hand, "I recognize that compared to other stories I'm covering, O.J. is not exactly the most important story of the day."

It doesn't help that Simpson's alleged crime this time makes the trial less sexy to the public, according to Toobin.

The first trial "was about the cold-blooded murder of two people," he says. "This crime, if it was a crime, was a bunch of creeps screaming at each other in a hotel room about a bunch of junk that's probably not worth much, anyway.

"Talk about history repeating itself first as tragedy, then as farce."

continued...

Earlier today TVNewser got a tip that a news organization had posted the $500,000 bond to get Casey Anthony out of jail.

Todd Black, EVP of Press Corps Media, who is handling press requests for Anthony's lawyer Jose Baez, reiterated to TVNewser that the bond was posted by a single anonymous donor. He said it is, "absolutely a bald-faced lie if anybody is saying," a network paid for the bond. "That party wants to remain anonymous," said Black.

TVNewser reached out to the broadcast and cable networks today and all denied posting the bond.

Still, much of the focus turned to ABC News. The network aired exclusive home video footage of the Anthony family on GMA Friday morning and on 20/20 Friday night. The Orlando Sentinel's Hal Boedecker was first to report, "ABC News did not pay for interviews or the home video...but ABC News told me that it did license the home videos and photographs."

An ABC News insider tells TVNewser the network paid $200,000 to license "several hours worth of home videos." The insider also says NBC was involved in a bidding war for the footage. A second source inside ABC tells TVNewser all three broadcast networks bid on the material which was eventually licensed to ABC.

An NBC News spokesperson disputes the claim, saying, "NBC did not make any bid to license the footage."

A CBS News spokesperson tells TVNewser, "We did not bid for the video."

But even if the figure was $200,000, still far short of the bond amount, Black is adamant the Anthony family did not receive any money. "If any news organization wants to pay for items of that nature, it has nothing to do with him," he says of Baez. "People have been making money out there selling items and making deals."

An ABC News spokesperson would only tell TVNewser the network licensed the footage from "rights holders," and did not specify if they went through the family or the family's attorneys.

This whole idea of a TV network posting Casey Anthony's bond was first brought up Friday night on The O'Reilly Factor, with Geraldo Rivera telling Bill O'Reilly, "Not ours, but it could be a network." O'Reilly responded, "If that's true, we're going to have a field day."

Another network TV insider tells us Baez attempted to "sell an interview" with Casey Anthony last week. We're told he'd been asking $500,000. Todd Black, the publicist, says Casey Anthony, now free from jail for five days, does not have any interviews at the "immediate time."

From a TVNewser tipster: "a major mainstream news organization is the reason Casey Anthony was bonded out jail — yep a major news organization posted her bail."

TVNewser is making calls on this tip.

Anthony made bail for a second time on Friday. The Orlando Sentinel reported, "A public-relations firm that represents Casey Anthony's attorney, Jose Baez, issued a statement saying that said an 'individual' who wishes to remain anonymous posted bond for Anthony because of concern that her constitutional rights have been violated."

Also today, the Orlando Sentinel's Hal Boedeker reports that high-profile Florida attorney Mark NeJame, who's been advising Anthony's parents, is making the TV rounds today: "He will be on NBC's "Today," on Nancy Grace's show on CNN Headline News and on Greta Van Susteren's show on Fox News Channel. "Today" said he would be on in the 9 a.m. half-hour, which WESH-Channel 2 shows at 10 a.m. There could be more interviews. I'm told he might visit CBS' "The Early Show" and ABC's "Good Morning America," Boedeker writes.

(image by Red Huber of the AP)