Remember when it was common for streakers and others to run out on a field ? Happened all the time. Why shouldnt it? You run on the field. You get chased. All the while the TV cameras point at you. As you run, you are already imaging the props you are going to get from all of your buddies. Sure you are going to get tackled by some security guard at some point. Maybe you even get clotheslined by a lineman. Then you get arrested and you pay your fine. But when you get home. Its all smiles and beers while you watch the replay over and over. It may the only chance you ever got to make SportsCenter.
Thats the price to pay for fame back in the 80s and 90s. Getting tackled and a fine.
Then one day the TV networks made a conscious decision to stop showing streakers and other runners that interrupted our games. They recognized it only encouraged them.
In this decade of digital media and internet everywhere, you dont have to run out on the field to get noticed. You just sue someone or you accuse someone of doing something.
It doesn’t matter if its true. Just put out a press release announcing the suit. This is America. You can sue anyone for anything. Maybe you have to pay for the lawyer. Maybe the lawyer does it on retainer or for the PR value. The bigger the Celeb. The more the PR. The more famous you are. Celebs should be used to this stuff. Its just the price of fame, right ?
Of course the claims don’t have to be legitimate. In the USA the case may be tossed out of court. It may be laughed out of court. But the minute it hits the AP, its online and its news forever. Not only is it news. it takes on a life of its own. Bloggers talk about it. Bloggers talk about the bloggers talking about it. Bloggers talk about the bloggers who are not talking about it. The bloggers who are not talking about it, talk about it by talking about why they wont talk about it.
Hats off to ESPN for not talking about the lawsuits that are out there simply because they are being filed. Its today’s version of the guy running out on the field. If the media that actually has more than 15 readers ignore it, we just might see a lot less of it.