There is no indictment of our industry wrapped up in Casey Close’s lawsuit against Doug Gottlieb. Unless your name is Doug Gottlieb or Casey Close, there are no lasting consequences. It is one guy suing another for one specific thing.
On Friday, my friend Dave Schultz invited me on his radio show in Mobile, AL to talk about the impact it could have on our industry. I can’t think of one.
I also fielded a text from a friend not in the industry asking “are y’all screwed if he wins?”. I just don’t see how. No matter what Close can prove, all of it is about Doug Gottlieb and Casey Close individually and not about the sports media industry at large.
Casey Close has to prove a lot in order to win a libel case. Not only does he have to show evidence that Doug Gottlieb’s report that Close never presented the Atlanta Braves’ final offer to his former client Freddie Freeman, but he also has to prove that Gottlieb knew it was false and put the report out specifically to harm Close.
There’s a business to protect here. When I look at this from miles away, it is hard to see a relevant media connection outside of the fact that Doug Gottlieb works for FOX Sports Radio. Close’s lawsuit is mostly about advertising.
Just like the burger that stars in a Burger King commercial, it doesn’t matter what reality is. The goal is to make you want a Whopper.
Casey Close needs clients and potential clients to see he is fighting back. He needs them to believe that he would never act against their best interests. Gottlieb, a nationally syndicated radio host, says that isn’t true, so he must take action. Even if he loses, he doesn’t lose lying down.
I know I have written this before, but it bears repeating. I am not a baseball fan. I am not a Braves fan. I want you to know where I am coming from here. I genuinely do not care. Frankly, I can not even confidently say I know where Freddie Freeman plays now.
Solely from a media perspective, I struggle to find the lesson we are supposed to be taking away from this.
Is it not to make stuff up? I think we all knew that one. I also don’t think that is what Gottlieb did. More on that in a moment.
Is it to make all of your sources public and never rely on quotes or information from people that won’t put their names on it? Well, in a perfect world, I think most of us would prefer every quote and accusation be sourced. In the real world, where the rich get their way with little to no consequence, people with that kind of information live in fear of retaliation. It doesn’t mean they can’t be trusted. It means they understand what is at stake when they come forward and that our libel laws are sensitive to that.
Forget our industry for a moment, it is for the betterment of society that we make libel so hard to prove. The law cannot be applied differently based on if it is a politician, actor, athlete, or agent filing the case.
Doug Gottlieb is a polarizing guy. I know plenty of people that can’t stand him and think he is a hot take artist, and I know just as many people that think he is being real and not filtering his opinions through a veil of what people want to hear.
Whatever you think about him is irrelevant. The fact is, at the moment, there is no irrefutable, compelling evidence that he made up a story about the Braves making an offer to Freddie Freeman that Casey Close kept secret. Remember, “innocent until proven guilty” isn’t a thing in civil court. The burden is entirely on Close to prove Gottlieb was knowingly lying.
I look at this from a common sense standpoint. Remember, I am not making the decision of who wins or loses this case. I am merely applying media logic to what we know to explain my opinion that where there is smoke, there is likely fire.
Anyone who works in this business has been told over and over that their Twitter following is important, but that it has no value to their employer. If you’re a radio host, you get paid for what you do on the radio. TV hosts get paid for what they do on TV, etc. The value you have comes from the value you create for your bosses.
Doug Gottlieb did not spend a day teasing that you need to be listening to FOX Sports Radio at 2:30 pm Pacific time for a bombshell about Freddie Freeman’s exit from Atlanta. If he had done that, every live read he did and every commercial FSR played would have been impacted by his report.
He didn’t take the story to Dan Patrick or Colin Cowherd, in hopes that breaking major news on a more popular show on his own network would grow his audience and add value to his next contract.
He broke the news on Twitter, a place where his time and effort aren’t compensated and the only people he could count on seeing it were the followers he already has. If the story was made up out of whole cloth, solely for self-promotion, Doug Gottlieb did it the shittiest way possible.
Sure, we will all be watching this lawsuit to see how it plays out, but it should be out of morbid curiosity and not genuine concern. My guess is as good as yours, but if you made me put money on it, I would bet we never get to trial.
There is no referendum to be made here, no lasting effects to be stamped on this business. This lawsuit is personal. It is either self-preservation or self-promotion for Casey Close. What does that do for any of us aside from providing content in markets that care about the Atlanta Braves?
