Welcome to another edition of The Pro Wrestling Post. This week we focus on the WWE’s battle with the press in Connecticut.
“Never pick a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel.” — attributed to Mark Twain
The WWE is finding out that throwing around its legal weight is backfiring. As you may recall, Linda McMahon second run at a Senate seat in Connecticut faced opposition from one of its local papers as the managing editor described McMahon’s former business as that of “violence, pornography and general raunch.” For that, the WWE threatened a libel lawsuit. The paper fired back with an editorial, not a retraction, outlining WWE’s violence, porn and ranch. Now, via CageSide Seats, the Connecticut Journal Inquirer has made a complaint to the Federal Election Commission due to the WWE threatening to sue the Journal Inquirer on behalf of Linda McMahon.
Via Journal Inquirer:
The newspaper’s complaint, lodged late last week, charges that the corporation’s assistance was rendered by WWE Senior Vice President Brian Flinn, who sent the threatening letter accusing the JI of libel. McMahon ran the company as its chief executive before resigning in favor of her husband.
Basically, the WWE made the litigation threats on behalf of the McMahon campaign which the newspaper believes is against FEC rules as it sought to influence press coverage through the lawsuit.
In its PR defense, Linda McMahon has hired a former Federal Election Commission chair Michael Toner to help the McMahon campaign out.
He has gone on the attack:
“The idea that an American corporation cannot seek a retraction from a newspaper for allegedly publishing libelous statements about the corporation without violating federal election laws is ludicrous,” the lawyer, Michael Toner, said in a statement released Monday by the McMahon campaign.
Payout Perspective:
How does this compare with the UFC’s cease and desist letter to MMA web site Cage Potato? The WWE demanded a retraction from the paper in lieu of filing its lawsuit. I would argue that both the WWE and UFC had plausible arguments for its action. Obviously, we see that the UFC was able to get a quick retraction and apology from Cage Potato. But, in this case the Journal Inquirer went on the offensive – an interesting strategy.
With the Journal Inquirer lodging an FEC grievance, the McMahon campaign has made extra work for itself. The dispute has garnered local reaction in the press as most side with the Journal Inquirer or depict the WWE as foolish for its threats. Regardless of the outcome of the FEC complaint or whether the WWE will file a lawsuit against the paper, it does not bode well for the McMahon campaign. Positive media coverage in Connecticut for McMahon may be scarce due to this dispute. While the media will report on the McMahon campaign, any possibility of placement of articles for the campaign may be non-existent.
Moreover, the McMahon campaign is spending unnecessary money to fight this while it could be using it for the campaign. The McMahons have the money, but it seems like the WWE and McMahon campaign underestimated its opponent here.
With the UFC, we know they are not afraid to spent lots of money to take people to court win or lose. Look at what they did with Randy Couture. He didnt lose. He just couldnt afford to keep fighting them. This may be why Cage Potatoe didnt want to fight them. Not to mention they are a MMA site and we all remember when the UFC blackballed most MMA websites. It would be biting the hand that feeds them. Also lots of other skeletons can be brought out during a battle. It seems Connecticut Journal Inquirer had their opinion and had the means to fight a legal battle if it come to that. Both WWE and UFC wouldnt have won if they sued imo. WWE picked on a bigger company. Even though the UFC wouldnt have backed down from a big company either. That said the WWE was hoping IJ would have just retracted to avoid a confrontation and it didnt work.
PS.
CJI called their bluff. Now CJI is trying to go after them. They wont win this either because they dont have much ground to stand on. But they do win in the long run because it seems their entire purpose from the start was to kill McMahon’s campaign. Now this will drag out in the media making their 1 time negative article front page news and drag out for weeks or months.