A letter from Jerry Roberts

Journalist Wins Arbitration,
But McCaw Appeal Expected

Dear friends,

After 3 ¹/₂ years, Arbitrator Deborah Rothman has declared me the winner in the litigation launched against me by News-Press owner Wendy McCaw's Ampersand Publishing LLC. In doing so, the arbitrator has ordered Ampersand to pay me about $900,000 in legal fees and costs.

My family and I can never thank enough all of you who stood with us and supported our fight on behalf of journalistic principle against a vicious and extraordinarily expensive legal attack aimed at ruining us financially.

The bottom line is that a neutral finder of fact, who heard all the evidence, listened to all the witnesses and reviewed all the documents, concluded there wasn't a shred of merit to Ampersand's case, which was aimed simply at  punishing me for standing up for ethics at the paper.

In her decision, Rothman wrote that Ampersand’s litigation objective was “to pin the blame on Roberts’ media statements for its lost prestige and credibility in the Santa Barbara community."

"Further, Ampersand pursued its objectives in this proceeding in a scorched-earth, take-no-prisoners, go-for-broke fashion … to punish Roberts for Ampersand’s public drubbing," she wrote, adding these words about how she viewed my motivations:

Roberts did not act out of venality - he had nothing to gain financially by speaking out against Ampersand – but out of deeply-held principles, beliefs and values on the respective roles of editors, publishers, advertisers and celebrities in journalistic excellence.

The most complete story about the arbitration was written by Craig Smith, a Santa Barbara attorney, law professor and blogger, who became the Boswell of the News-Press Mess as it's unfolded since July 6, 2006 . His story makes clear that McCaw now will play out the string of appeals, probably for several more years. You can read about it here: 

 http://craigsmithsblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/full-story-on-jerry-roberts-victory.html

Her intent clearly is to saddle me with even more ruinous legal expenses, while withholding the money she now owes me. Regardless, however, the Rothman decision is a clear, articulate and resounding public vindication of the principled position that all of you – because of your support – enabled me to take on behalf of reporters and editors everywhere, in favor of the values, standards and ethics of public interest journalism.

Please accept my sincerest gratitude for that.

Thank you again.

If you're interested in making a contribution to Jerry's continuing legal defense, please send a check to the Lawyers Alliance for Free Speech Rights, you can donate through the Pay Pal link or by sending a check to the address below.