How many melees have you witnessed in Prep sports?

I should have explained this further, but my OP was long enough.

We were all sued for libel and slander, and intential infliction of emotional distress. The lawyer in the photo we printed led the lawsuit behind the scenes, although he was the plaintiff (one of his big lawyer buddies handled the case), and it was more an attempt to bleed the paper and throw his lawyerly power around than it was about an actual case. He didn't know my publisher's lawyer was an esteemed law professor at the law school in the state's largest city (about 60 miles away).

Also, my publisher had been sued so much in his lifetime, he didn't even bat an eye when the process server showed up that day. He just tossed the papers on the side of his desk and told the dude to have a nice day, looked at me and said: "knew this was coming..."

That day in court, after nine months had elapsed and I was at another paper, I showed up in court and five minutes went by before the judge said something like it was the most frivolous lawsuit he had seen in his 25 years on the bench or something like that. The plaintiff and his attorneys knew they had lost when my publisher didn't settle with them, which is what they wanted.

The letters said we discredited the soccer program and made a mountain out of a molehill. Every letter printed as such had an editorial note attached that claimed the articles about the fight included accounts of both soccer teams going to the busses during the brawls.

Other letters said we should have considered that many people in the photos fighting were parents of players and booster club members, and we should have cleared it with them before we ran photos of them. Some letters from people in the photos said we ruined their lives, and we broke a right to privacy protection for making money off of their likeness (I never saw any of that money).

And other letters said the fight wasn't that bad. We followed those letters with editorial notes listing how many people had sought medical attention (that we knew of) after the brawl.

We followed this up with reports of fights at prep soccer events in Europe, and reports of fights on college campuses during football and basketball events to try and make it sound as though it comes with the territory of a winning program (but also to point out how ridiculous sports culture is becoming).

This town about 60 miles from a major metropolitan area is very affluent and ritsy in which people's shit smells like rose buds. While people had always been supportive of this paper, especially when we followed teams to state championships, reported on non white peoples going to jail for property crimes and reported on fiduciary malfeasance in city government, the paper lost that support after we showed their true colors.

This was a big ordeal, but I had already had my fill of the parents that ran the town and the school system before this brawl had broken out and had already interviewed for several jobs. The story and photos, some of which I took, others we bought from the freelancer from the other paper, all won awards and bolstered my resume. I even won design awards on this. The story basically swept the awards a year later. So there was a cloud in the silver lining or however that idiom goes.

 

Good stuff....
Parents never cease to amaze. Should have cleared it with them before running the pic... would they have said it if they were celebrating a win instead of fighting? Should have countersued claiming frivolous lawsuit and defamation...

 

There was so much freaking bullshit that came out of that, such as having people recognize me at the grocery store and bitch at me. I just wanted it behind me.

The whole soccer incident basically ended that paper's stature. The publisher has recovered alright, but the competitor paper really moved into that market, the big city daily, has strengthened its role in that community with a targetted publication. Not that that was not already about to happen, but the publisher lost big accounts, lost the paid legals, that kind of thing, over it. His staff dropped from 21 full time to 7 full time within a year.

And that kind of market was damned if you do, damned if you don't. I caught hell for reporting on state title winning teams at the city's various schools. One basketball photo made the star player look unattractive, so I was told. She was also a beauty queen (and helluva basketball player, get that).

Like I said, the readers in that community shit rose petals.