SLAPP?

Bill Peduto claims that the lawsuit Lamar Advertising filed against him and his fellow Councilmen Shields, Burgess, Kraus, and Dowd was a SLAPP. He seems to suggest the city law department opinion about their legal expenses has the sting of a SLAPP, too.

What's a SLAPP?

I didn't recall the term, but apparently SLAPPs have a long and contentious history.

SLAPP stands for "Strategic lawsuit against public participation".


Wikipedia defines it as:

"a form of litigation frequently filed by organizations or individuals to intimidate and silence critics or opponents by burdening them with the cost of a legal defense so that they abandon their criticism or opposition."

California passed a law to protect against SLAPPs. So have more than two dozen other states. That includes Pennsylvania, though our state's has been described as a "significantly weakened version passed into law in 2000." It was designed to deal only with environmental law cases, and reportedly was passed "after a coal baron sued an elderly constituent for filing a complaint with the state’s Department of Environmental Protection when her home suffered acid mine-water damage."

That's from this article in Philly area newspaper that quotes a critic complaining that a court ruling created "an unduly narrow interpretation that destroys any value or purpose of the statute."

It seems that SLAPPs are an international phenomenon. Here' s a YouTube video report by CUTV. Concordia University Television is Canada's oldest student-run television station. I'm linking to it here for some interesting background. As they say on the DVD extras, this is for entertainment purposes only, and does not necessarily reflect the views, etc.




Here are some PG articles in which the term "SLAPP" appears.

Developers sue Franklin Park, residents for losses
Suit cites neighbors' 'frivolous objections' to townhouse plan


The dash to SLAPP is chilling


Judge drops neighbors from townhouse lawsuit

Meanwhile, I ran into Lamar Advertising's attorney Sam Kamin as I was leaving the City County Building after Tuesday's council meeting. He told me he had just finished dictating the court filing to withdraw Lamar's lawsuit against the city council members, as agreed to in the arrangement signed before the zoning board.

A check of the county court's website shows that the lawsuit has now been "Discontinued without Prejudice".

What the significance there is (if any) of the lawsuit being discontinued "without prejudice" in this case, I do not know.

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Reverend Rossi Goes Hollywood

You'll find a link to my Channel 4 Action News report here.

It's about the DVD directed by and starring Reverend Richard Rossi, whose jury deadlocked and did not convict him of attempting to murder his wife in Butler County back in 1994. Rossi later entered a "no contest" plea to a count of aggravated assault in the case, and served a few months in jail.


You can see the trailer for his movie here...


...and his YouTube reel of acting highlights here.


Credit to Steve Levin of the PG for doing the story about Rossi in Sunday's paper; I had spotted the DVD on the shelf at BlockBuster, but not realized it was made by Rossi.

The line in the PG story that stuck in my mind was something also mentioned on the DVD box. The PG reported:

"...It was voted one of the top guerrilla films of all time ..."

It made me want to do some googling to learn more. With the exception of this news release, the only references you'll find on the internet to this organization are in blurbs praising Rossi's movie:

Auteur independent filmmaker Richard Rossi won the top spot on the International Guerrilla Film Association's list of 100 Greatest guerrilla films for his low budget movie "Aimee Semple McPherson," a biopic about a fabled female evangelist in the Roaring Twenties. The results were announced yesterday at the annual IGFA party in New York.

The top five runnerups in order were "Eraserhead," a 1978 David Lynch film, "Night of the Living Dead" (George Romero's horror classic shot in 1968 for $68,000.00), Kevin Smith's $28,000.00 first feature (1994)"Clerks," "400 Blows," a French New Wave film directed by Francois Truffaut in 1959, and "El Mariachi," a 1993 Robert Rodriguez film shot for $7000.00...

...Richard Rossi shot his critically acclaimed movie on a $300.00 consumer camcorder, used clamp-on construction lights purchased at Home Depot for $48.00, and made "Aimee Semple McPherson" under a special Screen Actor's Guild experimental contract for films with budgets under $75,000.00

I can't find the "International Guerrilla Film Association". I did find three groups with similar names.


• International Guerrilla Video Festival: its official never heard of Rossi or his movie.


• International Guerrilla Film Database: its official never heard of the Sister Aimee movie or writer/director Rossi, either.


• There is an IGFA: it's the International Game Fish Association.

I called the contact number on the news release about the IGFA Top 100. The recording answers for Richard Rossi's production company.

If anyone can provide me with contact information for the International Guerrilla Film Assocation, I'll check it out and mention it here.


In the comments section at Topix, A person named Gina Morton describes seeing this remarkable moment of live theater involving Rossi:

I saw Richard Rossi, the director, writer, and actor in this film portray Elmer Gantry on stage at the Stella Adler Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard a couple years back, and in Long Beach. An amazing performance. The executor of the Richard Brooks estate was in attendance and came up on stage and gave Richard Rossi the Oscar from the 1960 "Elmer Gantry" film and said Richard Brooks would be proud. One of the best nights of theatre in LA ever.

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Quotes & Clarifications

In the news...




...which brings this to mind this scene from "Friends".

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Wake Up Cat: The Morning After Election Night

"Wake Up Cat" from YouTube.

Our cat Sky, practicing his pounce.

A friend e-mailed this video to me last weekend. It seems especially appropriate, since I hoped to get some extra sleep this morning after putting in some long hours for election night.

My wife and I had tried to slowly adjust our cats' mealtimes to match setting the clocks back by an hour. Even so, it doesn't seem that they were ready to accept the idea of sleeping-in past their breakfast time.

I swear, the "Wake Up Cat" video seems like someone placed a sleep study camera in our home.

If you're interested, here's a second link to the video by animator Simon Tofield of Tandem Films.

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Why Don't You Just Tell Me Who You're Going to Vote For?

Over at 2 Political Junkies, Maria blogs about "Two Bizarre Phone Calls". The second call she describes:

"...was a recorded message that purported to be a poll. It went something like this:"

"We have a mayor's race. If you are going to vote for Ravenstahl press 1, DeSantis press 2, Olivia press 3, Scott press 4, if you want to keep your choice private press 5. There's also a controller's race. If you're for Lamb press 6, etc."

"OK, When the message began, I was excited. Maybe someone was conducting an independent poll!"

But then, she says:

"There was no pause to vote for mayor before controller and at the end it said to press zero to leave your email address if you wanted the results of the poll."

"At some point in listening to the message, I thought that it sounded a bit like Mark Rauterkus."

"I pressed 2 for DeSantis at the end of the message but that didn't allow me to also press 0."

"Was it you, Mark?"

Her story reminds me of this scene from Seinfeld--the one in which Kramer is plagued by wrong-number calls for Moviefone, and he tries to stand in for the automated recording.

In the comments section of Maria's post, the mystery of this phone poll is revealed.

Speaking of surveys, The Post-Gazette's Early Returns and The Burgh Report's Admiral Richard K. Turner recount how a mayor's race poll on KD Radio's website was hacked by a city goverment employee in order to favor Mayor Ravenstahl. The mayor's spokeswoman Alecia Sirk is quoted as confirming "it was a crazy tactic for supporting the mayor" that the city worker launched at home on his own time.

To paraphrase Yogi Berra, this just goes to show that online polls aren't worth the paper they're not printed on.

In pre-internet days, some Pittsburgh controller's office employees were suspected of repeatedly calling in to skew KQV's Phone Vote. That poll has also always been easy prey for those who "vote early and vote often".

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Dogged Reporting, Hard-Hitting Questions

My blogging has slowed in recent weeks, in part because of a project I've been working on.

It's something I'll be able to let you know about this week: an event on September 15 for anyone with an interest in open government and open public records. In fact, you'll get an invitation. Check back in a few days.

In the meantime, here's a YouTube video spotlighting a relentless reporter that I thought you'd enjoy.

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The Cat Came Back

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Mayor Luke & Tiger, Part 3: Ravenstahl Answers

Here's a YouTube link to the entire video of Mayor Ravenstahl answering my questions about his encounter with Tiger Woods. You can check out a transcript later in this post. The mayor insists he didn't know he was heading for a $900-a-ticket private event when set out on his quest to meet Tiger. When pressed, he acknowledges that he called ahead asking for a chance to see Woods but that no one returned his phone call. Ravenstahl says he just wanted to meet him--both as a golf fan and in his capacity as mayor--and that he now wants to put the matter behind him.

Note: During my interview, the mayor criticizes KDKA's coverage of the story. Those comments weren't included in my broadcast report, which focuses on the mayor's direct account of what happened. Because they appear in the unedited interview, I should note that Jon Delano reports he did offer the mayor the opportunity to comment and that the mayor declined.

Click on the "Read More" link below to read a transcript of my Q&A with the mayor.

Bob Mayo: "..The flap over the visit to Oakmont for that pre-U.S. Open event with Tiger Woods. What's your answer to what exactly happened that day?"

Mayor Luke Ravenstahl: "Well, I wish to put this matter behind me, first of all. And my recollection of the situation, being that I was there, is much different than what has been reported from KDKA."

"I was there. I was invited to have lunch. I was invited and given a T-Shirt. I was invited and given a badge to walk along. At no point did I, as was suggested, crash any party, sneak in to any event."

"(I) had discussions with everybody. The only thing that I was asked not to do was ask Tiger Woods for an autograph, which I certainly didn't."

"The sources that are referenced, I think the fact that they are anonymous at this point is troubling to me."

"For example, Gerry Dulac from the Post-Gazette, he was quoted as saying that he was there with me. I spent time with him that day. The events that took place that day are nothing as was reported by KDKA."

"So, it's been frustrating in many ways. And you know, when you're the mayor of the city, and you live your life under the microscope, you understand that type of activity is going to happen."

"I just wish I would have had the opportunity to discuss the issue prior to the story being run, so I could have given my side of the story. But KDKA chose to go in a different direction and I think that's unfortunate."

Mayo: "The Trib reported this back in early May, so KDKA apparently wasn't alone in this. Just to clarify, some people said, oh, you invited yourself. Did you invite yourself, or did the U.S. Open invite you, or did American Express invite you?"

Mayor Ravenstahl: "I went to Oakmont that day in an attempt to meet Tiger Woods. At the time I got there, I didn't know that he was going to golf and American Express people were going to be invited. So I simply went there to say hello, welcome him to Pittsburgh, spend five minutes with him. Didn't know that he'd be golfing in the afternoon with the people."

"Once I found that out, and once I was invited, certainly I accepted. But I did not go out there knowing that American Express had the opportunity to go with him that afternoon. That was never my intention. My intention was simply to say hello, welcome him, and spend, you, know, a minute or two with him."

Mayo: "You had called ahead, but hadn't heard back--you showed up?"

Mayor Ravenstahl: "Yeah, I called personally and hadn't heard back, and so I went out and showed up, in the hopes of spending a couple of minutes with him. At which time I was asked to park here, and come on in and have lunch, and it really went from there."

Mayo: "So that's the point at which you were invited, after you showed up?...

Mayor Ravenstahl: "Absolutely, right...."

Mayo: "...They said, stay, come in?"

Mayor Ravenstahl: "...Yep, absolutely."

Mayo: "The other thing would be, were you there as the mayor, were you there as an individual fan?"

Mayor Ravenstahl: "Probably a little bit of both. You know, I'm certainly a big golf fan, and I there as the mayor, as well, to welcome him to the city. And when I had the brief opportunity for a minute or two, I did welcome him as the Mayor of Pittsburgh. And so, I guess I was there as a golf fan, certainly, but as the mayor as well."

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Mayor Luke & Tiger: Part 2

Are there more pictures of Mayor Ravenstahl's Tiger Woods encounter?

Maria of' 2 Political Junkies suggested I take a second look at the YouTube video I mentioned in my last post. When I tried, I discovered it's been 'removed by the user'.

Meanwhile, Pittsburgh's premier site for satire, The Carbolic Smoke Blog, is busy scouring its own photo archives on this topic.

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Mayor Luke & Tiger: The Video. An Invitation?

Two Snapshots From The Video

A reader of 2 Political Junkies turned up this YouTube video from the day of the encounter between Mayor Luke Ravenstahl and Tiger Woods. Above are the two fleeting glimpses of the mayor in the crowd following Woods. They last for only seconds.

The Trib's 'Whispers' first reported on this back on May and Jon Delano gave the story new life with fresh details this week.



PG's Dulac Says Mayor Had Invite To Tiger Event?

Here's another version to check out. The Post-Gazette's Gerry Dulac said in a PG online chat in May that "Mayor Luke did not crash the party, as you suggest, but he was there -- with an invitation. And the party was getting to walk the fairways when Tiger played a practice round. I know, I saw him there and walked a couple holes with him. He's a big golf fan." It's the fourth question-and-answer down from the top.

The Burghosphere is hopping with discussions about this.

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New Pittsburgh Politics Online

A snapshot of the "Luke for Mayor" site

Mayor Luke Ravenstahl's campaign website has come alive. It's just one of three fronts that Ravenstahl supporters have engaged online. In addition to the campaign website, there are now:


•YouTube postings of Ravenstahl campaign ads,

•a blog by Matt H, one of the mayor's more vocal online supporters.




Jeremy Boren of the Trib did a story about YouTube video and the mayor's race, which inspired me to revisit the topic here.







During my scanning of local blogs, I came across some posts by a college student who blogs under the name Agent Ska. She identifies herself as the one who shot video of Mayor Luke Ravenstahl at local democratic committee meetings and posted it on YouTube under the name PittsburghDemocracy.


It was obvious in her posts here and here that she was wrestling with the media attention her YouTube video had drawn, and whether it was meant to suggest she had edited the video in a way that had distorted its meaning. She makes it clear in her blog that she is an active Peduto supporter; Jeremy Boren writes that "video clips submitted by the user PittsburghDemocracy try to catch Ravenstahl saying something controversial or embarrassing". While that clearly is the case--and while anti-Ravenstahl bloggers have highlighted the video--the clip itself appears unaltered.

Since Agent Ska is a student and not used to the media spotlight, I recently sent her the following e-mail to answer the questions she had been posting about our coverage.

Dear Agent Ska,

Please don't feel that our doing a story about your YouTube video was meant to suggest that you did anything to alter your video's content. Your clip from the committee meeting started with the question from the audience and continued with the mayor's answer for a minute-and-a-half. That's longer than many TV news reports. I didn't see any editing in your clip that would suggest "inaccuracies"; it was raw video.

The starting point of our WTAE story was that the mayor made the remark, it was now on the 'net, and people were talking about it. It was generating comments on local blogs. My question to the mayor was not about how your video was cut, it was a question about what his "boss" remark meant; he described as a being a joke.

It was the mayor--not me--who said "If the clip would have continued, you would have seen Dan was the next to speak". In my story, we followed your clip with our photographer's video because it offered a different camera angle. Our photographer was shooting wide during the mayor's comment, and was in a position to zoom in to Onorato for his reaction. Your original YouTube clip itself did include the mayor's complete answer, in which he said that he's pressing for continued bus service in city neighborhoods.

The mayor told me that he hadn't seen your YouTube clip himself; I think his comments were in response to what people had been saying about their interpretation of the significance of the clip.

I know from reading your posts that you're politically active, but I haven't seen anything in your raw video clip to suggest it was altered in any way. It appears to be the entire exchange, from start-of-question to end-of-answer.

Your taking the time to go out, gather, sort through, and upload all of your video reminds me of my college and early radio days of working with audio-- an unpaid labor of love. I think you deserve credit for working hard at it and caring about what you do. The fact that you went out of your way to dig up the Onorato video and post that on YouTube too is testimony to that.

I'm sending you this as an e-mail, but if you'd like, I'll post it on my blog. Let me know.

Best Wishes,

Bob Mayo

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"I’m a Pasocon." "I’m a Makku."

PC & Mac,
Japanese-Style

You know the 'Get a Mac' TV ads featuring John Hodgeman as a PC and Justin Long as a Mac computer.

It turns out they've been redoing the ads in Japan: different actors, same personalities. I love this video.






I'm an avid Mac user, and I enjoy tracking Apple's innovations the way some people follow sports teams. This could be an interesting week, by the way. Apple's CEO Steve Jobs gives the keynote at the MacWorld Expo on Tuesday. There's talk he may unveil a much-talked about "iTV" which will break new ground in linking your TV to the internet. Other rumors include a new kind of video iPod or even an Apple "iPhone".

This image on Apple's home page doesn't do much to lower expectations, does it?

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Secret Mario/Jim Balsillie Video Revealed?

Not quite, but you'll want to see this.





I stumbled upon this video while researching the Penguins story.
It's a sketch by the Royal Canadian Air Farce that I discovered while googling Jim Balsillie.

As some of you may have seen, this has been my week for unusual BlackBerry connections to the Penguins/arena/slots story.

Shortly after twelve on Thursday, my BlackBerry buzzed with the arrival of Mario Lemieux's news release revealing that the Pens would "begin discussions with other cities that may be interested in NHL teams". I quickly phoned in a report for our noon news. In the middle of answering an on-air question from Sally Wiggin, I happened to spot Mayor Ravenstahl walking up the steps of the City County Building. I cut short my live report and my photographer T.J. and I dodged lunch hour traffic on Grant Street to get the mayor's response.

To my–and the mayor's–surprise, the word had been e-mailed to the media with no advance warning to local government officials. I found myself in the position of reading Mario's statement to the mayor from the screen of my BlackBerry as we stood outside next to the city's Christmas tree.


(Credit to Karlo's Blogovich for the YouTube link.)

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