How sweet it is:
Tuesday February 9, 8:17 pm Eastern Time
NBC Pays To Settle Rivera Challenge
By SAMUEL MAULL
Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK (AP) -- NBC has agreed to pay $10,000 to a lawyer who claimed Geraldo Rivera reneged on a promise to pay that sum to anyone who could prove a person had been prosecuted for lying about sex.
Rivera issued the sex-perjury challenge Sept. 24 on the CNBC television show ''Rivera Live'' that was devoted to analysis of the investigations of President Clinton's relationship with Monica Lewinsky.
NBC spokesman John Brine said the network will pay Mark Bogatin rather than slog through a lengthy legal fight, even though it ''continues to believe that none of the claims have satisfied the challenge.''
''This is purely a business decision,'' Brine said. ''Geraldo strongly disagrees with NBC's decision to settle.''
Bogatin said after about five hours of research in a law library, he found five cases and sent them to Rivera. The show failed to pay, and he sued.
Bogatin said the network's decision to settle ''represents an acknowledgment that Rivera was wrong to deny my claim.''
Rivera, a lawyer, contended the investigation of Clinton for allegedly lying about his sexual conduct was unprecedented and that criminal prosecutions are simply not brought for lies about sex.
NBC has paid $10,000 to Joe DiGenova and Victoria Toensing, a husband-wife lawyer team in Washington, because cases they submitted met the criteria of the challenge, Brine said.
DiGenova, a former U.S. attorney, and his wife, a former Justice Department official, frequently appear on television as conservative commentators.
The couple donated the money to the Ronald McDonald House, Brine said. |
