The Roosevelt Island community is fortunate, in my view, having three local media sources to cover and opine on various issues facing our neighborhood - the Main Street WIRE, Roosevelt Island Daily
and Roosevelt Islander Online.
However, rather than reporting on Roosevelt Island news, the WIRE and Daily are now making news.
On November 10, the WIRE and publisher Briana Warsing filed a lawsuit in NY State Supreme Court against the Roosevelt Island Daily and publisher David Stone. The allegations in the WIRE/Warsing complaint include improper use of an email list and various defamatory statements allegedly by Daily/Mr. Stone.
Below is an excerpt from the complaint:
FACTS COMMON TO ALL CAUSES OF ACTION
... 15. Prior to the spring of 2016, Defendant Stone worked as a freelance contributor to the The Main Street WIRE.
16. In the spring of 2016, Defendant Stone engaged in discussions to take over the The Main Street WIRE as publisher, replacing the retiring editor, Dick Lutz (“Lutz”)
17. During the course and in furtherance of the discussions identified above, Stone requested disclosure of the Wire Bulletin List. Lutz shared the Wire Bulletin List with Stone with the understanding that Stone only use the Wire Bulletin List in furtherance of the business of Plaintiff WIRE.
18. A satisfactory arrangement could not be reached between Defendant Stone and Plaintiff Wire.
19. On April 13, 2016, Defendant Stone informed Plaintiff Wire via e-mail that he was “moving on”.
20. On April 16, 2016, Defendant Stone sent an e-mail to all people and business on Wire Bulletin List to announce that Stone was starting a competing business, i.e. Defendant, Roosevelt Island Daily.
21. On April 25, 2017, Lutz, on behalf of Plaintiff Wire, provided written demand to Defendant Stone to cease and desist use of the Wire Bulletin List for his own purposes. Defendant Stone provide written refusal on April 25, 2017, stating that Lutz, “[a]s a 77 year old man, [has] a lot of growing up to do”.
22. Bulletin List:
On November 12, 2016, Stone conceded improperly retaining and using the Wire Bulletin List:
The email list [the Wire] claims I don't have ‘permission to use’ was already in use before our deal with the WIRE collapsed. Lutz gave it to me, along with detailed instructions on how to upload it to my own account.
The reason he did was because I wanted to restart the Alerts that he'd dropped months before after reducing full time activities with the WIRE. Warsing had not picked them up.
I picked up the list and began sending Alerts as a service to the community. No one paid any sort of sponsorship. It was just a good thing to do. So, why should that not continue after my deal with the WIRE ended?
See http://rooseveltislanddaily.prosepoint.net/143780.
23. Defendants Stone and Daily acknowledged on August 19, 2017 that the Wire Bulletin List was created by the Wire:
“[the] mailing ... did not originate with The Daily. It's a list compiled from residents who wanted to receive community alerts from the former Main Street WIRE... Our active list is roughly 90% subscribers who started out with the WIRE.
See http://rooseveltislanddaily.prosepoint.net/risa-gets-little-support-for-rioc-public-purpose-funds.
24. In August of 2017, after the termination of negotiations between Stone and Lutz, and after the creation of Defendant Daily by Stone, plaintiff Warsing was appointed the Editor in Chief of The Main Street WIRE.
25. Thereafter, Stone began to systemically and repeatedly attack Warsing, the Wire and anyone associated therewith with false and misleading allegations of racisms, sexual misconduct, and lack of professionalism. ...
You can read the entire Complaint at bottom of post.
I asked
Roosevelt Island Daily Publisher David Stone if he wished to comment. Mr. Stone replied:
First, I was surprised by the WIRE’s claims of defamation because no one connected with the newspaper has ever complained about the factual accuracy of anything I’ve written, not even once. When I heard about their concerns, I immediately informed them that I’d be eager to correct, retract and publicly apologize for any factual errors. Most newspapers have practices like that, as mine does, and had the WIRE ever complained, I’d have taken it seriously. They didn’t, even after I offered.
What all this appears to be is an unprecedented attack on the First Amendment by a financially stronger competitor seeking to silence criticism by dragging them into expensive litigation. It’s made even worse — and potentially embarrassing to the community — by its being driven by a newspaper that exists only because the First Amendment gives them a right to free expression. Even Trump doesn’t do that with CNN, and certainly, the WIRE has every right and a broad platform to defend itself and counter criticism. Resnick, Lutz and Warsing chose litigation instead. The Roosevelt Island community can reach their own conclusions about that.
They may be successful. The Roosevelt Island Daily is a financially borderline community service online newspaper. We simply don’t have the resources to fight the WIRE’s backers, including at least one well-heeled nonresident. But they don’t seem interested in any other course of action.
The WIRE and Warsing have also complained about a mailing list Dick Lutz gave me for the purposes of sending out alerts. Because it was filled with duplicates, stale and uninterested addresses, I haven’t used it in a year and a half, but I do not agree that I have no right to. The list was given without any strings attached, and there was no agreement about limitations. Moreover, as I’ve explained, I was never a WIRE employee and never finalized any commitment with the WIRE, although I was willing to until they backed out. The transfer happened while negotiations were ongoing. Later, Dick along with Jack Resnick and Briana Warsing decided not to honor the terms under which we’d been working together. I was saddened when that happened, but I don’t see how that gives the WIRE retroactive rights they never claimed at the time. The list itself is not only stale and outdated but also unused by the WIRE. Why they would want to prevent Roosevelt Island residents from getting daily alerts on transportation, weather and news is beyond me.
They have also complained about my encouraging businesses and their customers to consider what they investing in when their money goes to the WIRE. That’s a reasonable suggestion, I think, and conditioned on specific actions by the WIRE that I sincerely believe were detrimental to the community. Again, people can decide for themselves. Print media everywhere is bleeding advertisers, as you well know, because it’s not considered an effective way to reach customers. I can’t change that nor should I be expected to protect the WIRE against its own practices that hurt community members and institutions. If a business or a resident disagrees with me, nothing stops them from supporting the WIRE.
I can’t see how any of this reflects well on Dick Lutz, Jack Resnick, Briana Warsing or the WIRE or why they’re so concerned about this much smaller competitor that they’d attack the First Amendment in a way that has never been done before in America.
I asked
Main Street Wire Publisher Briana Warsing for comment. Ms. Warsing replied:
As provided in the complaint, we are simply seeking redress from defamatory comments and theft of property and are not seeking to limit any rights under the First Amendment. We would prefer a private resolution without court intervention, though the other side, to date, seems uninterested.
Below is the Complaint.
Click here for better view to read the complaint.
UPDATE 11/30 - From the Twitterverse:
The
Roosevelt Island Daily publisher has more today including:
I haven't seen the complaint Main Street WIRE attorney Marc Jonas Block filed against me and the Daily in Supreme Court. Others have, including other local media. Word spread around Roosevelt Island....
Click here for full article.
