The Things Bill Koch Doesn't Love
There's a major media storm brewing between ultra-wealthy businessman and America's Cup winner Bill Koch and The Boston Globe, specifically, it's smart and sharp-elbowed Living/Arts columnist Alex Beam.
Fighting mad over an unflattering Aug 9. Beam column (sorry, this one is already in the Globe archives) that recounted some of Koch's past legal battles, Koch -- whose art, guns and racing boats are now on display at the Museum of Fine Arts -- has demanded a retraction and correction and is certainly hinting at litigation if he doesn't get them. Read more about the entire episode -- including Koch's lawyer's letter to Beam -- on the Phoenix web site
Now, in an effort to rachet up the pressure on a bit, starting tomorrow, Koch will be running ads on four billboards -- including one on the Southeast Expressway near the Globe's Dorchester home -- of a censored Modigliani nude advertising the exhibit at the MFA. The headline: "Brilliance Concealed." (A similar campaign will be launched on buses next month.)
Koch, unhappy about the Beam column and other less-than-laudatory Globe stories about the exhibit, felt the need to counteract the paper's bad press, his spokesman Brad Goldstein told Media Log.
"We feel the Globe tried to stick a pin in the balloon," says Goldstein. "We felt we were obligated to do that because the Globe has been so unbalanced in its coverage of the exhibit."
Fighting mad over an unflattering Aug 9. Beam column (sorry, this one is already in the Globe archives) that recounted some of Koch's past legal battles, Koch -- whose art, guns and racing boats are now on display at the Museum of Fine Arts -- has demanded a retraction and correction and is certainly hinting at litigation if he doesn't get them. Read more about the entire episode -- including Koch's lawyer's letter to Beam -- on the Phoenix web site
Now, in an effort to rachet up the pressure on a bit, starting tomorrow, Koch will be running ads on four billboards -- including one on the Southeast Expressway near the Globe's Dorchester home -- of a censored Modigliani nude advertising the exhibit at the MFA. The headline: "Brilliance Concealed." (A similar campaign will be launched on buses next month.)
Koch, unhappy about the Beam column and other less-than-laudatory Globe stories about the exhibit, felt the need to counteract the paper's bad press, his spokesman Brad Goldstein told Media Log.
"We feel the Globe tried to stick a pin in the balloon," says Goldstein. "We felt we were obligated to do that because the Globe has been so unbalanced in its coverage of the exhibit."
3 Comments:
Explains why Beam didn't write about obsequious Koch/MFA profiles on Channel 2's "Greater Boston", (less obnoxious one still on Ch. 2 site). Heat was already on.
Koch is fascinating. For a guy who has been publicly humiliated so many times, he still craves the limelight for some reason. Sort of a big-business Geraldo Rivera...
(I posted this on Media Nation last night as well.)
Interesting. Beam and his lawyers should be aware of the Solaia Technology LLC v. Specialty Publishing Co. in which an Illinois appellate court found that even though Start had simply reported charges against Solaia that were part of a separate and unrelated suit, that because Solaia's "allegations of actual malice defeat the [fair report] privilege."
Link here for Michael Miner's report on it in the Chicago Reader: http://www.chicagoreader.com/hottype/2005/050513_2.html
Here's the series that sparked the suit: http://www.startmag.com/print/chaos.asp?VIEW=ALL
Here's the link to the Alex Beam column: http://www.boston.com/news/globe/living/articles/2005/08/09/the_things_bill_koch_really_loves/
Mike_B
Emily just refered to Koch as being in a "pissing contest" on "Greater Boston". Bet that caused some at WGBH to do a "spit-take" with their Chablis....
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