2 Hockey Players And Elisha Cuthbert Want Cash From A TV Station For Airing A Joke Tweet

from the streisand-shoots-and-she-scores! dept

Thu, Mar 5th 2015 1:39pm — Timothy Geigner

I'm a little surprised to say that we have yet another Streisand Effect story involving NHL hockey players. The previous post had to do with a rookie hockey player who tried to trademark a nickname with some negative connotations to it in order to control how that nickname was being used. This one is a little bit different and, honestly, it sounds like the start to really bad joke: two hockey players and actress Elisha Cuthbert want an apology and cash from a sports station that aired a joke tweet about a love triangle between the three of them during the trade deadline coverage.

That's the joke tweet. It was part of a rolling tweet embed that sports stations do all the time, instructing viewers to use a particular hashtag and then pulling those tweets and putting them on the air. This particular tweet, concerning the Toronto Mapleleafs' Joffrey Lupul, Dion Phaneuf, and Phaneuf's wife, who happens to be Elisha Cuthbert, probably would have made it past any automated filters the station, TSN, had set up. After all, there's no obvious vulgar words or anything like that. So, whether such filters exist or not, the tweet pops up on air.

And the three subjects of the joke are pissed.

"On behalf of our clients Dion Phaneuf, his wife Elisha Cuthbert and Joffrey Lupul, we have sent a letter to TSN demanding that TSN issue a formal apology and pay a significant amount of damages to each of our clients for broadcasting a false and defamatory tweet during their trade deadline show yesterday. We are sending a similar letter to the author of the tweet, Mr. Anthony Adragna.

It is bad enough that there are people who spend their time using social media to publish such false and malicious stories, but it is made much worse when a reputable media outlet like TSN gives broad circulation and credibility to these false stories by republishing them as TSN did. If TSN and Mr. Adragna do not immediately comply with the demands set out in our letters, we have instructions from our clients to immediately commence a lawsuit against them. Our clients will not be discussing this matter with the media. Any questions should be directed to the undersigned."

So, a couple of things here. First, it's questionable how much validity a lawsuit against either party would be. The tweet itself is obviously a joke to anyone who bothers to read the wording of it, which makes a defamation case problematic. TSN has alreay issued an apology to the three of them and they clearly had no intention of defaming anyone at all.

But, finally, and most importantly, what the hell, you three? It was a flash of a joke tweet that was on a Toronto TV station for, like, a couple of seconds. But because you three freaked out about it and got the lawyers involved, there's been national media attention on the very thing you wanted to erase from our collective consciousness to begin with. Talk about Streisanding your way towards the opposite goal.

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: dion phaneuf, elisha cuthbert, hockey, joffrey lupul, jokes, lawsuits, streisand effect, threats, tv, tweets
Companies: toronto mapleleafs, tsn

20 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Gwiz (profile), 5 Mar 2015 @ 1:52pm

To put this in Hockey terms...
Streisand moves up the ice, receives the puck on the tape, dekes left...backhand shot...and THROUGH the FIVE HOLE! Oh my! What a beautiful move...she left Phaneuf and Lupul holding their jockstraps on that one!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 5 Mar 2015 @ 1:57pm

I have no idea whom the three people are.
All three seem to use the same law firm…
that alone makes them a fucking triangle.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Phoenix84 (profile), 5 Mar 2015 @ 2:06pm

Re:
Elisha Cuthbert played Kim Bauer in 24.
The other two I've never heard of.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Ned Ludd, 5 Mar 2015 @ 2:20pm

On Purpose
Cuthbert has a new TV show, called "One Big Happy" premièring in a week. The show is sort of triangle - two women and one man living together, she plays a lesbian who is surrogating the couple's child. As the old showbiz saying goes, there is no such thing as a bad publicity.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 5 Mar 2015 @ 3:31pm

I'm guessing someone at that TV station got fired today.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
JPMDNS, 5 Mar 2015 @ 3:40pm

You call this journalism ?
The 3 threatened a lawsuit if they didn't get an apology from the broadcaster. The apology was issued : story over.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
moira, 5 Mar 2015 @ 3:49pm

A network must be held responsible for any slanderous information it chooses to broadcast. Period. It's not about whether anyone thinks it's a "joke" -- it's about CRTC regulations.

TSN is fried on this one.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 5 Mar 2015 @ 5:14pm

Re: Re:
Elisha Cuthbert was in Girl Next Door, in which she played a porn star seducing a high school student.

This is what she's offended by.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 5 Mar 2015 @ 5:27pm

Re: Re: Re:
Do you believe that Anthony Hopkins endorses serial killing?
It's called acting.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Beech, 6 Mar 2015 @ 2:03am

Re: You call this journalism ?
"The 3 threatened a lawsuit if they didn't get an apology from the broadcaster. The apology was issued : story over."

"On behalf of our clients Dion Phaneuf, his wife Elisha Cuthbert and Joffrey Lupul, we have sent a letter to TSN demanding that TSN issue a formal apology and pay a significant amount of damages to each of our clients"

Reading comprehension much?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Beech, 6 Mar 2015 @ 2:07am

Streisand Level 9000
So, not knowing who Elisha Cuthbert is, I opened another tab and googled her. Guess what? This article is the #1 result. In fairness, it's at the top of the "in the news" section, but it was the very first thing I saw.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 6 Mar 2015 @ 5:10am

Methinks...
...the lady('s attorney) doth protest too much. "Smoke and fire" is all I'm sayin'.

Of course, I'd have never been moved to wonder whether Elisha Cuthbert (of whose existence I was previously completely ignorant) is an adultress or at least a "loose woman" were it not for her attorney's full retard approach to getting a paycheck.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Thrudd, 6 Mar 2015 @ 8:21am

full retard
Firstly we should not be making disparaging remarks against the mentally handicapped or those of insufficient wit.

As for shenanigans, the station is fully responsible for what they broadcast. Here in Canada it is the law.

As for the - it's a joke - no it is not except in certain ratified climes where such derogatory statements are acceptable. Must be the low local oxygen levels right?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
John Fenderson (profile), 6 Mar 2015 @ 8:25am

Re:
Perhaps so, I don't know Canadian law on this. But whether the threesome wins in court, they lose anyway because they are bringing the "slander" into the consciousness of a LOT more people than would have been aware otherwise.

The reason the lawsuit is a bad idea isn't because of whether or not it has legal merit. It's because just filing the lawsuit turns something that was not news into news and causes the very damage that they are concerned about.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
btr1701 (profile), 7 Mar 2015 @ 7:58am

Re:
> A network must be held responsible for any slanderous
> information it chooses to broadcast.

Depends on if it's actually defamatory. If she really did bang the other player, then it's true and by definition not defamation.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
btr1701 (profile), 7 Mar 2015 @ 8:02am

Re: Methinks...
And the threat of a lawsuit is pretty dangerous if Cuthbert really did have an affair with the other player. If the station or the original tweeter call their bluff and say, "So go ahead and sue us", the players and the actress will open themselves up to discovery and have lawyers picking through their private lives with a microscope. If she really did cheat, not only will all that be made public, it will invalidate their defamation claim, since truthful information cannot be legally defamatory.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 7 Mar 2015 @ 2:01pm

Re: Re:
I remember when Americans liked hockey more, in the 90's you were pretty into it, this is sad times. Both those guys are massively millionaires, especially Phaneuf.

I'll tell you something, I've played up to Midget AAA level at 16 year old and I could have tried and continued to Major Junior level just before the big leagues, but I got tired of the retardation most of these athletes suffer from. It's just a fact of life. They're not as dumb as football (canadian football is pretty much like american football, at least its not drastically different like aussie football) players in general but close enough, especially since the head traumas (concussions) are a bit too common.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 7 Mar 2015 @ 2:04pm

Re: Re: You call this journalism ?
Yeah, it's not like any of them need more money. Phaneuf has been paid 7 million a year since about 6 years as a Leafs player(overpaid idiot). Lupul has been around since longer so maybe he's got as much money with his 3.5-4 million a year he must be making.

Greedy bitches.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 7 Mar 2015 @ 2:08pm

Re: full retard
Full retard applies to Dion Phaneuf more than anybody in this thread or the writer of the articler, x9000. He was kicked out of Calgary for being an annoying blowhard. And the typical Leafs fan is about the same.

Go Habs!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Michael, 25 Mar 2015 @ 7:04am

Re: Re: Re: Re:
Seriously. And Hopkins is a good actor. Cuthbert isn't even all that believable.
[ link to this | view in thread ]