SALON

Wednesday, Oct 27, 2010 9:32 PM UTC

O’Donnell threatens to sue station over video

Campaign manager demands WDEL turn over interview footage; assumed questions would not be videotaped

By

Topics: Christine O'Donnell,

Republican Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell’s campaign threatened to crush a radio station with a lawsuit if it posted video of an interview with the tea party favorite on the Internet.

During the interview Tuesday on WDEL-AM, O’Donnell snapped her fingers and beckoned a spokesman to her side after the host of “The Rick Jensen Show” pressed her on how she would have handled the New Castle County budget differently from her Democratic opponent Chris Coons, who is the executive of the state’s largest county.

Jensen told The Associated Press that O’Donnell said after the interview that she would sue if the video was released. O’Donnell campaign manager Matt Moran then called WDEL general manager Michael Reath, demanding the station turn over the video and threatening to crush the station with a lawsuit if it did not comply.

“He accused us of creating a story to garner ratings because we must be hurting since the (Philadelphia) Phillies were no longer on the air,” Reath said, adding that Moran accused Jensen of “grandstanding.”

After viewing the video, which the station provided to the campaign before posting it Tuesday night, O’Donnell’s campaign attorney called WDEL’s attorney and was very apologetic, Reath said.

O’Donnell spokesman Doug Sachtleben, who was in the studio during the interview, said Wednesday that her camp tried to find out before the questions whether it would be videotaped and, after not getting a clear answer, assumed it would not be.

“It was more of an issue of whether or not they were forthright with us,” he said.

Reath noted that before the interview began — when O’Donnell, her sister, and Sachtleben were in the studio — a video technician came in to adjust the cameras and microphones.

The Wilmington station said it routinely posts audio and video of interview segments on it website, and that a September appearance by O’Donnell had been recorded and posted on the web.

——

Associated Press writer Ben Evans in Wilmington contributed to this report.

More Randall Chase.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 21 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
Paul Krugman’s right: Austerity kills. "In an economy where we’re all in the same boat, one person’s spending is another person’s income. So when the government cuts spending, it reduces people’s income, leading to less business, more unemployment, and a vicious spiral of slowing down the economy."
383 points384 points | 403 comments
vote
Paul Krugman’s right: Austerity kills -- radical cuts destroy economies and lives, and the honest numbers and economics keep proving it
172 points173 points | 27 comments
vote
Virginia state Sen. Mark Obenshain wants to send women to jail who don't report their miscarriages to the police
115 points116 points | 21 comments
vote
Corporate greed is poisoning America — literally
90 points91 points | 12 comments
vote
Facebook “like” on trial in Virginia
30 points31 points | 6 comments

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations