Y'all by now must have read Dave in Queen's tale of the Fox News darling Sean Hannity and his handler's bizarre behaviors at a book store. And we're all familiar with the Al Franken lawsuits... the BillOreillySucks.com and Robert Greenwald legal threats (amongst others)...
So right now RawStory.com has the exclusive of what Fox has been trying to do to me. Nick Juliano writes up the complete story, but the bottom line is that the Fox News Lawyers have attacked; they wrote a letter to the Dean of my law school asking him to investigate my behavior for possible violations of the school's standards of conduct. There's more to the story after the flip, but for now, I've got a message for Bill O'Reilly, Dianne Brandi and Roger Ailes:
I'm still standing and my hair isn't even messed up. And I won't be going away. If it takes living out of a barrel, I will do everything I can to hold you accountable for your dishonest yellow journalism and propagandizing. You've got blood on your hands that no amount of lawyering will ever wash off.
I sent the following letter to Roger Ailes:
Your browser may not support display of this image.
CallingAllWingnuts.com
Charlottesville, VA 22901
W. Michael Stark
Proprietor
Roger Ailes
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Fox News Channel
1211 Avenue of the Americas
New York, New York 10036
Re: Dianne Brandi; Bill O’Reilly
Dear Mr. Ailes:
I write on my own behalf to call your attention to the misconduct of two of your employees, staff attorney Dianne Brandi and on-air personality, Bill O’Reilly. On October 23, 2007, Ms. Brandi contacted by overnight letter the Dean of my law school at The University of Virginia School of Law, John C. Jeffries, Jr. In the letter, Ms. Brandi, without basis in fact and with willful malice, asserted that I was guilty of "misconduct", interfered with "the ability of members of the University community to... express their views", "threatened to post Mr. O’Reilly’s home address on the internet", and that I meant "harm to Mr. O’Reilly and his family."
Fortunately for all concerned (except Ms. Brandi, who is bound by the New York State Lawyer’s Code of Professional Responsibility), each of the assertions are, at best, specious, and at their worst, demonstrably false.
Under normal circumstances, I would feel confident that Fox News’ executive leadership would handle this matter with dispatch and competence. Unfortunately, public court filings in the Andrea Mackris sexual harassment case give me pause for concern. Specifically, the Complaint filed by Andrea Mackris before the Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of New York on October 13, 2004 contained the following allegations in paragraphs 54-56:
- ...When Plaintiff [Mackris] reminded Defendant [O’Reilly]that he had done the same thing to other women who had worked on "The O’Reilly Factor," and that he should be careful or they might tell someone, O’REILLY vehemently threatened with words to the effect:
If any woman ever breathed a word I’d make her pay so dearly that she’ll wish she’d never been born. I’ll rake her through the mud, bring up things in her life and make her so miserable that she’ll be destroyed. And besides, she wouldn’t be able to afford the lawyers I can or endure it financially as long as I can. And nobody would believe her, it’d be her word against mine and who are they going to believe? Me or some unstable woman making outrageous accusations. They’d see her as someone psycho, someone unstable. Besides, I’d never make the mistake of picking unstable crazy girls like that.
- During the course of this conversation, Defendant BILL O’REILLY further sternly warned, to the effect:
If you cross FOX NEWS CHANNEL, it’s not just me, it’s [FOX President] Roger Ailes who will go after you. I’m the street guy out in front making loud noises about the issues, but Ailes operates behind the scenes, strategizes and makes things happen so that one day BAM! The person gts what’s coming to them and never sees it coming. Look at Al Franken, one day he’s going to get a knock at his door and life as he’s known it will change forever. That day will happen, trust me.
- During the course of this conversation, Defendant BILL O’REILLY bizarrely rambled further about Al Franken: "Ailes knows very powerful people and this goes all the way to the top." Plaintiff queried: "To the top of what?" Defendant responded: "Top fo the country. Just look at who’s on the cover of his book [Bush and Cheney], they’re watching him and will be for years. [Al Franken’s] finished, and he’s going to be sorry he ever took FOX NEWS CHANNEL on." Plaintiff found O’REILLY’s paranoid rambling both strange and alarming.
Mr. Ailes, under these circumstances, it is difficult for me to move forward confident in the belief that you will expeditiously investigate and resolve this matter in a way that provides judicious finality and leaves my wife and I secure from fears that the Fox News Channel has not undertaken a vendetta against me. Indeed, Ms. Brandi’s letter to the Dean of my law school has left my wife, Mayin – an innocent bystander by any measure – extremely fearful for the health and welfare of herself and our children.
Although past events foreshadow difficulty in reaching a fair and judicious resolution to the matter before us, I am not dissuaded from asking Fox News Channel for an apology – for the attempt to harass and intimidate me at my school place – and a promise that no significantly similar behavior will be pursued in the future.
At bottom, Fox news Channel should be aware of the inappropriate conduct of Bill O’Reilly and Dianne Brandi. Ms. Brandi’s false and malicious assertions have the potential to redound to Fox’s negative benefit, and Mr. O’Reilly’s bizarre abuse of the legal process reflects poorly upon the Fox News brand. I urge you to contact me if you would like to discuss this further.
Sincerely,
W. Michael Stark
Furthermore, it struck me as odd that Fox News had an email I had personally sent to Larry Sabato... I mean, in politics discretion is everything, right? And isn't that doubly true if you are a mouthpiece for a political party that hates you for who you are?
So I sent this email to Larry Sabato:
Professor Sabato,
Below please find the letter I sent to Roger Ailes at the Fox News Network [see above, ed.] in response to Dianne Brandi's irresponsible effort to interfere with my ability to improve my station in life by acquiring a law degree from the University of Virginia. Since you forwarded a letter I sent to you to Fox, it is clear that you have some interest in this and I thought that as a courtesy, I'd keep you informed.
That said, I sure do wonder what compelled you to share my correspondence - addressed to you - with the Fox News Channel? Is this a standard practice amongst the political punditry?
To the extent a semi-private person like yourself would be disappointed if certain private behaviors of your own were to receive a full airing... well, I'm just very surprised that you, of all people, would see fit to distribute your private correspondence to a news organization, of all things...
So it would certainly be helpful if you could put my mind at ease: what advantage did you see in sharing the email and voicemail communications I sent/left you?
To be clear, Mr. Sabato, I have not decided whether or not it would make sense for me to share my concerns with the larger blogosphere. As a matter of fairness, I do want to caution you that your answer to my query may or may not appear on HuffingtonPost, RawStory or DailyKos... I also want you to be aware that the fact that you did share my email with Fox is already in the hands of some internet news organizations/blogs; that toothpaste cannot be put back in the tube.
I hope you are doing well; if you would like to discuss this further, I can be reached at xxx xxx xxxx.
Best regards,
W. Michael Stark