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Outsports will be featured on the
next-to-last episode of the reality series “The
Law Firm,” on Bravo, Saturday, Oct. 8 at noon EDT
(check your listings).
The episode, which features real
lawyers in a competition arguing real cases,
centers around a lawsuit filed in July 2004 by Chris
Haribinson, a North Carolina man who said Outsports defamed
him by running his picture in a photo gallery from the 2004
Los Angeles Marathon. The parties agreed to have the case
decided on the television show before a jury.
 Here is a synopsis of the show from
Bravo:
“Only three of the
12 competing
lawyers remain in the fight for the $250,000 grand prize,
and this time the case involves the hot button issues of gay
rights and the 1st Amendment. The contestants will work
together and face the challenge of going up against famed
attorney Geoffrey Fieger, known for defending Jack Kevorkian
and presenting the infamous lawsuit against the ‘Jenny Jones
Show.’ In a surprise twist, legendary American swimmer Gary
Hall is brought to the stand to weigh in on this compelling
case.”
On March 7, 2004, Harbinson was
photographed stretching prior to the start of the Marathon
by Outsports photographer Brent Mullins, who was
credentialed to shoot the event. On March 22, Outsports ran
Harbinson’s photo as part of a
gallery of 150 images from the event, but did not
use his name.
In his suit, filed in Raleigh, N.C.,
Harbinson claimed he is not gay and that his picture on
Outsports caused him to suffer “extreme embarrassment,
public humiliation, mental agony and damage to his name and
reputation.”
The suit added that Outsports “knew or
should have known that false depiction of Plaintiff as gay
could subject Plaintiff to the general community’s ridicule,
contempt and disgrace (regardless of Plaintiff’s being gay
or otherwise), and to the gay community’s ridicule, contempt
and disgrace (as Plaintiff was not gay.)”
Outsports, which has been regularly
credentialed to photograph public sporting events from Major
League Baseball and the NFL to international swimming and
water polo, did not run captions with any of the Marathon
photos, and nowhere on the site did it say or imply that
Harbinson was gay.
“We believe this lawsuit is frivolous
and without merit,” Outsports said in a statement last
summer. “We have published thousands of images of athletes
from the famous to the obscure, and are appalled that in
2004 someone would argue that their mere presence on our
site would be defamatory.”
“In addition, we were credentialed to
shoot the event, which took place on public streets in Los
Angeles, and were well within our First Amendment rights. It
would be chilling if gay-oriented publications were
subjected to different standards than the rest of the media
when covering the same event.”
Harbinson further contended that use of
his image on the Outsports home page as a link inside to the
Marathon story and gallery took advantage of him for
commercial purposes. Outsports also denied this charge.
Related:
“The Law Firm” website |
