Turns out you probably can forget about the suit, which claims that not only did Belo execs know about the circulation fraud but encouraged it, even demanded it. Despite the company's own admission it bent and broke the rules, on March 30 U.S. District Judge Sidney Fitzwater tossed out the case, claiming "at most Decherd and Moroney engaged in acceptable management techniques intended to increase DMN circulation and corporate revenues by emphasizing personal employee responsibility and increasing employee awareness of the adverse consequences of failure." In other words, they were just doing their jobs by demanding their people hit their numbers or else.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs, who are in Los Angeles and Dallas, will not take no for an answer: On May 12, they filed an amended complaint in federal court here that, they claim, stregthens their case against Belo. If nothing else, at 142 pages, it lengthens it. Tomorrow we'll have a review of the document, which is this summer's must-read for the CJR set, but today Belo filed for an extension, claiming it can't respond in the required 45 days because Peckham's attorney is seriously ill and "will likely undergo follow-up hospitalization." Expect a response by July 13, when Belo will likely file yet another motion to dismiss, and then expect the plaintiffs' motion to oppose Belo's opposition by Labor Day. So the suit's still there. And maybe it's about to get more interesting; did someone mention "secret tape recordings"? Not me. --Robert Wilonsky
