SuckaInA3Piece
01.13.05, 08:52 AM
King files lawsuit against ESPN
Don King yesterday filed a defamation suit against ESPN, and his attorney said the boxing promoter is entitled to damages of more than $2.5 billion.
The lawsuit says a "SportsCentury" segment aired last May accused King of being "a snakeoil salesman, a shameless huckster and worse," claimed the flamboyant promoter underpaid Muhammad Ali by $1.2 million and claimed King - convicted in a 1967 beating death and acquitted in a 1954 killing - "killed not once, but twice."
Most of the material in the program had been printed or broadcast earlier about King, who has spent much of his career in court, but the wild-haired promoter said he had just had enough.
"I just felt that this was the straw that broke the camel's back and I can't take it anymore, and I'm going to fight back," King said at a news conference. "I seek justice."
The suit, filed in state court in Broward County, Fla., names ESPN and its parent company, Walt Disney Co., among the defendants. Also named are Disney-owned ABC Cable Networks and Advocate Communications, a Florida-based cable and satellite system.
"We have not seen a copy of the lawsuit, so we are not in a position to comment on it," said Mike Soltys, ESPN's vice president of communications. "However, 'SportsCentury' is a Peabody- and Emmy-award winning series of more than 250 biographies that is widely respected for its journalistic quality and integrity."
Don King yesterday filed a defamation suit against ESPN, and his attorney said the boxing promoter is entitled to damages of more than $2.5 billion.
The lawsuit says a "SportsCentury" segment aired last May accused King of being "a snakeoil salesman, a shameless huckster and worse," claimed the flamboyant promoter underpaid Muhammad Ali by $1.2 million and claimed King - convicted in a 1967 beating death and acquitted in a 1954 killing - "killed not once, but twice."
Most of the material in the program had been printed or broadcast earlier about King, who has spent much of his career in court, but the wild-haired promoter said he had just had enough.
"I just felt that this was the straw that broke the camel's back and I can't take it anymore, and I'm going to fight back," King said at a news conference. "I seek justice."
The suit, filed in state court in Broward County, Fla., names ESPN and its parent company, Walt Disney Co., among the defendants. Also named are Disney-owned ABC Cable Networks and Advocate Communications, a Florida-based cable and satellite system.
"We have not seen a copy of the lawsuit, so we are not in a position to comment on it," said Mike Soltys, ESPN's vice president of communications. "However, 'SportsCentury' is a Peabody- and Emmy-award winning series of more than 250 biographies that is widely respected for its journalistic quality and integrity."