Vision Media's Attempt To Silence Critic May Be Exposing More Questionable Activities
from the welcome-to-modern-media dept
Earlier this year, we wrote about a company called Vision Media TV that was suing the operator of 800Notes.com, a site where users had complained about Vision Media. Vision Media, of course, has been criticized in the NY Times and other media publications for cold calling organizations, promising to put them on "public television," but not making it clear that all it seemed to do was send the program it would put together (after the organization paid somewhere around $20,000) to various public television stations, with no promise that it would get on TV. Vision Media has been aggressive in trying to quiet any criticism, but with this latest lawsuit, not only is it getting some pushback, but others may be digging up some additional dirt on the company.Paul Alan Levy, who is representing 800Notes, alerts us to the news that all of this attention has helped dig up other reports about the company, including the fact that similarly questionable pitches have come from other companies with different names (WJMK, United Media, Vision Media and Great America HD)... but the very same address as Vision Media. Rather than Hugh Downs, those other pitches involved media personalities like Walter Cronkite and Mike Douglas -- both of whom ended up suing the company over being misled. This reminds me that we received a similar pitch ourselves a year or so ago, but I have no idea if it was from the same company (and tragically, I can't find that voicemail any more).
Of course, none of this would be getting as much attention if the company wasn't trying to silence 800Notes and its users from saying why they felt the pitches were questionable.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: cold calling, criticism, hugh downs, streisand effect
Companies: 800notes, great america hd, united media, vision media tv, wjmk
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: "Broken Government"
Please explain how this effort by a shady company to silence its critics is in any way connected to the "broken nature of the U.S. government?"
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: "Broken Government"
Lawyers who bring SLAPP lawsuits should be subject to sanctions including fines and suspension of privileges to practice.
http://www.InventorEd.org/SLAPP/
This is one area where Mike Masnick and I actually agree on something. There are others but after addressing all the drivel about patents I have little time left.
Ronald J. Riley,
I am speaking only on my own behalf.
Affiliations:
President - www.PIAUSA.org - RJR at PIAUSA.org
Executive Director - www.InventorEd.org - RJR at InvEd.org
Senior Fellow - www.PatentPolicy.org
President - Alliance for American Innovation
Caretaker of Intellectual Property Creators on behalf of deceased founder Paul Heckel
Washington, DC
Direct (810) 597-0194 / (202) 318-1595 - 9 am to 8 pm EST.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: "Broken Government"
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: "Broken Government"
Ronald J. Riley,
I am speaking only on my own behalf.
Affiliations:
President - www.PIAUSA.org - RJR at PIAUSA.org
Executive Director - www.InventorEd.org - RJR at InvEd.org
Senior Fellow - www.PatentPolicy.org
President - Alliance for American Innovation
Caretaker of Intellectual Property Creators on behalf of deceased founder Paul Heckel
Washington, DC
Direct (810) 597-0194 / (202) 318-1595 - 9 am to 8 pm EST.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Let them go ahead and sue
I mean what could possibly go wrong?
- Barbra
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Similar Scams On Inventors
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Similar Scams On Inventors
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Babs!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Non Profit Org in Alabama falls for this scam
[ link to this | view in chronology ]