Did an old ESPN Professional Create a Large Mistake Suing On the Crude Erin Andrews Story? (Analysis)

Wesley Hitt/Getty ImagesESPN's Erin Andrews. A week ago, former ESPN executive Keith Clinkscalessued a friend who allegedly shared an incorrect story aboutClinkscales self pleasuring on the flight while sitting alongside ESPN reporter Erin Andrews. The complaint alleging defamation is quite thin -- just six pages -- and boosts an issue about whether Clinkscales designed a wise relocate acting so rapidly to create this matter right into a NY federal court. The law suit happened just like the sports blog Deadspin was investigatingwhat happened on that flight. Clinkscales, who until lately would be a senior v . p . of content development and businesses at ESPN, made the decision he didn't wish to wait to discover the claims on Deadspin. So he required action by filing what's being called like a "pre-emptive" suit. What intrigues us here's not what went down on the flight, but instead just what the ESPN executive wished to achieve if you take this tact. By filing the suit so rashly, Clinkscales virtually assured the strange masturbation claims could be covered in media and over the dunia ngeblog. When the Herman Cain sexual harassment coverage has trained us anything, it's that innuendo becomes ripe for media as long as you will find official charges lodged or money compensated out. The main difference between salacious gossip and investigative confirming is becoming, for better or worse, a document trail. Maybe Deadspin might have released the Clinkscalesstory anyway. But Clinkscales' allegedly "pre-emptive" suit didn't do anything to alter that. No injunction was asked for. The legal claim was unlikely to scare away Deadspin in the story nor substantially change how other media shops would treat a raunchy allegation which had Andrews like a character. The only real factor the fast suit may have transformed is really a calculation of damages, whether it's proven the defendant Joan Lynch did indeed maliciously spread lies about Clinkscales, and also the situation against her will get that far. Clinkscales may state that Lynch's gossip-mongering hurt his status, but could he provethat the storyline that did probably the most to break his image might have ever released had he not first filed the suit? In filing his claims, Clinkscales gave Deadspin a handy news peg to the story, in most probability insulation the web site from the separate defamation claim and raising the problem whether he led to, instead of mitigated, the exposure from the masturbation story. The defamation claim is becoming a power outlet for sensitive politicians to strike back against unsavory news tales, but these kind of cases also often incite huge news coverage. It could feel great for that complaintant, but we question if this sounds like a mistake both on the PR and legal front. Here's a duplicate of Clinkscales' accusations, which we'll admit to possess i never thought of discussing been with them not be a federal suit: E-mail: eriqgardner@yahoo.com Twitter: @eriqgardner