Did a classic ESPN Professional Produce a Large Mistake Suing Around the Crude Erin Andrews Story? (Analysis)

Wesley Hitt/Getty ImagesESPN's Erin Andrews. The other day, former ESPN executive Keith Clinkscalessued a buddy who allegedly shared an inaccurate story aboutClinkscales self pleasuring on the airplane while sitting alongside ESPN reporter Erin Andrews. The complaint alleging defamation is very thin -- just six pages -- and boosts an problem about whether Clinkscales developed a smart relocate acting so quickly to produce this matter in to a NY federal court. What the law states suit happened similar to the sports blog Deadspin was investigatingwhat happened on that flight. Clinkscales, who until recently will be a senior v . p . of content development and companies at ESPN, made a decision he didn't desire to wait to uncover the claims on Deadspin. So he needed action by filing what's being known as just like a "pre-emptive" suit. What intrigues us here's not what went lower on the airplane, but rather what the ESPN executive wanted to attain for this tact. By filing the suit so rashly, Clinkscales virtually assured the strange masturbation claims might be covered on television and also over the dunia ngeblog. Once the Herman Cain sexual harassment coverage has trained us anything, it's that innuendo becomes ripe for media as lengthy because you will find official charges lodged or money paid out out. The primary distinction between salacious gossip and investigative verifying has become, for better or worse, a document trail. Maybe Deadspin may have launched the Clinkscalesstory anyway. But Clinkscales' allegedly "pre-emptive" suit did not do anything whatsoever to change that. No injunction was requested. The legal claim was unlikely to scare away Deadspin within the story nor substantially change how other media shops would treat a raunchy allegation which in fact had Andrews just like a character. Really the only factor the short suit might have changed can be a calculation of damages, be it proven the defendant Joan Lynch did indeed maliciously spread lies about Clinkscales, as well as the situation against her can get that far. Clinkscales may condition that Lynch's gossip-mongering hurt his status, but tend to he provethat the story that did most likely probably the most to interrupt his image may have ever launched had he not first filed the suit? In filing his claims, Clinkscales gave Deadspin an opportune news peg towards the story, in many probability insulation the site in the separate defamation claim and raising the issue whether he brought to, rather than mitigated, the exposure in the masturbation story. The defamation claim has become a energy outlet for sensitive political figures to strike back against unsavory news tales, however these type of cases also frequently incite huge news coverage. It might happy for your complaintant, but we question if this describes an error both around the PR and legal front. Here's a replica of Clinkscales' accusations, which we'll admit to own i i never thought of talking about been there 't be a federal suit: E-mail: eriqgardner@yahoo.com Twitter: @eriqgardner