Categories: OLD Media Moves

Attorney files lawsuit against LA Times business columnist

An attorney filed a class action accusing Los Angeles Times business columnist Michael Hiltzik of recording telephone conversations without his interviewees’ consent, in violation of state wiretap law.

Matt Reynolds of Courthouse News Service writes, “Silverman claims Hiltzik’s conduct not only violated state law but the newspaper’s ethic guidelines, which state: ‘People who will be shown in an adverse light in an article must be given a meaningful opportunity to defend themselves. This means making a good-faith effort to give the subject of allegations or criticism sufficient time and information to respond substantively. Whenever possible, the reporter should meet face-to-face with the subject in a sincere effort to understand his or her best arguments.’

“Silverman claims that neither he nor other interviewees were given a ‘meaningful opportunity to defend themselves.’

“‘Defendant’s representations that he abides by the ethics guidelines are false, and defendant knows they are false because he does not make a ‘good faith effort to give the subject of allegations or criticism sufficient time and information to respond substantively.’ Instead, defendant intimidates his interviewees, conditions their response on providing recorded telephone interviews, and fails to obtain their consent when he wiretaps and records their telephone conversations,’ according to the complaint.

“An L.A. Times vice president called it ‘another baseless lawsuit filed by Mr. Silverman.’

“Nancy Sullivan told Courthouse News: ‘Mr. Hiltzik has not been served, but this is just another baseless lawsuit filed by Mr. Silverman. This time he is the plaintiff. Three other lawsuits he filed against the Los Angeles Times and its employees have been thrown out of court. We are confident that this latest vexatious lawsuit also will be thrown out.'”

Read more here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.

Recent Posts

Dynamo hires former Business Insider executive editor Harrington

Former Business Insider executive editor Rebecca Harrington has been hired by Dynamo to be its…

8 hours ago

Bloomberg TV hires Kerubo as desk producer

Bloomberg Television has hired Brenda Kerubo as a desk producer in London. She will be covering Europe's…

8 hours ago

Jittery CNBC staff reassured by new boss

In a meeting at CNBC headquarters Thursday afternoon, incoming boss Mark Lazarus presented a bullish…

8 hours ago

Making business news accessible to a wider audience

Ritika Gupta, the BBC's North American business correspondent, was interviewed by Global Woman magazine about…

9 hours ago

Rest of World hires Lo as China reporter

Rest of World has hired Kinling Lo as a China reporter. Lo was previously a…

9 hours ago

Bloomberg rises to No. 7 biz news website

Bloomberg News saw strong unique visitor growth to its website in October, passing Fox Business…

9 hours ago