Blogger Sued for $20 Million for Calling Company a Scammer

Leslie Richard, owner of the small home-based eco-fashion business, is being sued for $20 million over a blog post.

Richard was contacted by Vision Media Television, a production company based in Boca Raton, FL, who said they wanted to include her and her clothing store in a segment on eco fashion. It would be seen, they told her, by 84 million people, on PBS, CNN, and all over Europe.

It all sounded great until VMT asked for almost $26,000 to cover production fees and travel costs for filming. Richard thought it sounded fishy, and she started doing some investigating.

She learned that they're not affiliated with PBS or CNN. In fact, PBS includes a disclaimer in the FAQs on their website that reads in part: "PBS wishes to clarify that it is not associated with and does not endorse, distribute programming for, review underwriting for or otherwise have any business relationship with the following production companies: VM Television, Vision Media Television..."

In a post titled Scam Taking Advantage of Green Businesses, Richard detailed what had happened, and included some of the emails that had been exchanged. In July, Vision Media responded with a lawsuit. They objected to her use of the word “scam.”

A major issue the case brings up is that bloggers First Amendment rights are not as clear as those of mainstream media. A bully like Vision Media counts on a lone blogger not having the resources to fight a lawsuit, even a frivolous one like this one.

The posts of many bloggers are shedding light on the situation, and that always helps because bullies count on having their victims turn tail and run.

Over the past several years, Media Bloggers Association has offered legal support and successfully resolved scores of similar cases. MBA's website says it soon will offer affordable liability insurance to its members, along with media law training.

Wow! This is the first case we've seen like this on a small blogger. I too am "guilty" of calling out unethical companies myself and never imagined that they'd have the ability to sue over it if they are indeed pretty "scammy". I hope this woman doesn't get burned by that awful company. They're honestly doing themselves a big disservice. The more bloggers and media outlets that pick up this story, the worse they look.

Nick - unfortunately, it's far from the first and it won't be the last.

That's exactly why I'm posting about it - making their actions public is the best way to show who they really are.

BL, in the pre-Internet days, I complained about a company to the Better Business Bureau. I soon received a letter from the "scammer" company, threatening to sue me for libel! Of course they never did.

What's also amazing here are the "anonymous" comments that are clearly being posted by this company. A clear lack of transparency and attempt at deception coupled with their general business practices appear to be only making the blogger's case stronger.

I have also been contacted by companies like these several times. The first couple of times I was as outraged as this blogger was. Now, I'm able to sniff out this BS sales approach quickly and dispose of the call.

Just think... most of the company's problems regarding their integrity and ethics could have been avoided if they simply changed their sales pitch and were honest about the "paid advertisement" nature of their program.

This is a very interesting case to read about. I think it's great that they will soon be offering affordable liability insurance.

Quite scary. I would love to know how this turns out.

I've blogged about bad companies many times and posted about others on message boards but I'm always careful to avoid terms like "scam" or "fraud". As long as what you say about them is true they can't sue you for libel and you can expose them to your hearts content but as soon as you use the S or F words you open yourself up for a lawsuit that doesn't require them to prove libel to win.

I'm going to be writing a post about the ad companies that in my opinion screw bloggers over.
And I hope someone tries to sue me for writing the truth.Publicity never killed anyone.But I'm really just writing it because I have already written these companies to no response.So I just want to save people from running these ads for FREE because if you don't get paid that is what it is a rip off.
Thanks great blog.

My husband is being sued over his blog too.
Long story but basically a defimation of character suit, read here: http://sawatch.wordpress.com
His lawyers told him this week that they have learned that bloggers have the same defimation rules as any print publication...therefore because he sited all the doings of this particular company & all the links were correct, it is a no-brainer & the suit will most likely be dropped.
Needles to say, it has popped his enthusiasm for writing - and he is great if I do say so myself. I hope to get him back on the road to self expression once this blows over.