--There is a ton of Connecticut media both yesterday and today concerning the threat by WWE of a lawsuit against Chris Powell of the Manchester Journal-Inquirer for using the word "pornography" to describe how Linda McMahon made her money. Powell wrote a story today at http://www.journalinquirer.com noting WWE's defense of it not being porn was the PG guidelines and he noted that only came into effect in 2008, and then brought up a number of incidents like Trish Stratus barking like a dog, the short-lived HLA segment (seriously, the minute that clip goes into court the WWE's case is ruined), the Edge & Lita in bad segment.
--Linda McMahon claimed that she had no idea the WWE made this threat against Powell in a story at http://ctmirror.org She noted she hasn't been with WWE since 2009. "Yes, I'm still married to the chairman, but really what WWE does, it believes is right for it to do for its own business, is totally what it's doing."
--Brian Flinn of WWE told the Hartford Courant, "WWE refuses to be bullied and will not allow our content to be inaccurately categorized. This is not about politics or Linda McMahon's candidacy. This is about protecting WWE's business and setting the record straight that WWE has never been in the business of pornography.
--The Norwich Bulletin at
http://www.norwichbulletin.com/ on the opinion page said that in their view they wouldn't call WWE pornography, nor would they call it family entertainment. They said it is "crude with a raunchy edge that is clearly intended to exploit sex for purely sensational, and ratings, purposes." They sided with Powell saying, "The threat of legal action is nothing less than intimidation and bullying, and, in our opinion, the company's claims of being unjustly maligned cannot be won on legal grounds. Besides, threatening legal action isn't a very effective means of silencing criticism. Lawsuits are how you make news, not discourage it."
--Don Pesci at
http://www.registercitizen.com rips on the WWE's strategy here, saying "A journalist who has been accused, however frivolously, of libel, knows he's gotten under his target's skin and likely will keep on probing. And so will other journalists. I can't imagine what the WWE brain trust was thinking when it threatened Mr. Powell."
--And the Darien Times wrote, "Let's be fair what that business was about, at least until it softened its image a few years back. It became a multi-billion-dollar empire through violence, degrading women and near pornographic stunts."
--Boy that strategy of scaring area reporters to shut up seems to be working out just great. Plus, now WWE on Monday either has to file legal action that will probably get thrown out immediately and suffer a public black eye, or not file action and be seen as backing down. And none of this can be good for the McMahon campaign. You'd think if Linda is talking with Vince, she should have had enough foresight to see where this was going to end up and told him this isn't the right strategy. Anyway, if they hadn't talked about it before, as she claims, and whether true or not, I can't imagine anyone will believe it in the outside world, she needs to talk to him about it pretty quickly.