Don’t blog about how a shady production company tried to rip you off for $25,000 or they’ll sue you for $20 million. Vision Media Television is one of several different alleged ripoff artists who frequently target non-profit and socially-aware groups, promising a big TV special aired on PBS and/or other major networks showcasing the group. The show is supposedly anchored by ex-20/20 anchor Hugh Downs and will reach millions upon millions of people. The catch? The organization has to pay for the production costs up-front, which run into the tens of thousands of dollars…and the show never goes on TV.
Complaints litter the internet about this company and its ilk. Some say that if you’re lucky, you end up with a stack of shoddily-made DVDs, a documentary that never airs at all, and none of the promised PR.
And after one blogger, Leslie Richards, a small eco-fashion business owner, wrote about an attempted shakedown by Vision Media Television, they sued her for $20 million, saying the blog post cost them $5 million in lost business and seeking $15 million in punitive damages.
The lawsuit is filed in the Southern District of Florida, a bit of a problem for her as she’s based in North Carolina and doesn’t have a car or much money. Leslie told the Mountain Xpress, “Who has $20 million? At $20 million, legal-aid organizations generally won’t help you. Since it’s filed in the Southern District of Florida, not a lot of lawyers here are licensed to practice there…I don’t have a car, I don’t have money, so we’re trying to get it transferred here so I can find someone to represent me pro bono.”
Any pro-bono lawyers out there who want to help Leslie out can contact her at info@theokobox.com.
Vision Media Television defends its actions, saying that it only distributes the programs to public television stations, which air them at their “discretion,” and blames its “customers” for confusing public television with PBS. Judging by the fact that PBS has an explicit disclaimer on its website denying any relationship between itself and Vision Media Television and other similar groups, this appears to be a confusion that Vision Media Television is not, shall we say, working very hard to erase.
Other production groups to watch out for: New Line Media TV, New Line Media, Platinum Television Group, PTG Studios, Paradigm Media Group, PMG, PMGTV, Infinity Media Group, Roadshow Productions, Family Television Studios, United Media Communications Group, American Review TV, Business Break TV, Event Media TV, and Global Television Studios.
I wonder if Vision Media Television, based in Boca Raton, Florida, a known haven for spammers, scammers, telemarketers,identity thieves, and other various ne’re-do-wellers, will also be suing the New York Times, which just ran an article exposing the company and its brethren.
Scam Taking Advantage of Green Businesses [The Öko Box]
Company Pitches a Television Production, and Nonprofit Groups Are Wary [NYT]
Local Business Owner Sued For 20 Million Over Blog Post [Mountainx]
Blogger Sued 20 Million [Blogher]
Eco Clothing Store Owner Sued For 20m After Exposing Scam [Earthfirst]
Platinum Television Group Complaints [Ripoff Report]
New Line Media Complaints [Ripoff Report]
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@Reeve: Question: If her blog is readable by residents of Florida, does that constitute “Doing business in Florida”? The internet is a place of many opportunities…and perils.
@bwcbwc:
I do not know Fl law but simply stating something once online is usually not enough.
@QuantumRiff: So that’s the voice over they spliced into Sunday night football!!!
Is it just me or are thees fake studios looking to get sued for copyright and trademark infringement: New Line Media TV/ New Line Media ( sounds like New Line Cinema)
Roadshow Productions (sounds like the b movie devision of Village Roadshow pictures)
Infinity Media Group (Sounds like Infinty broadcasting )
Global Television Studios (Sounds like the new Media production arm of the canadain television network Global)
imagine the finacial havoc that theese scam artists would be in if any one of theese bigtime media companies found outlet aloone all of em’….oouch!
This scam is not limited to non-profits and P.B.S. I worked for a boiler room in Amytiville Long Island that contacted small businesses with promises to to profile them on a local business program. The catch was that it would be at the business owners expense and the low-rent dvd’s were a marketing bonus. The show aired occasionally at odd hours when enough businesses signed on.
Not every business that offers a service for a fee is a scam and certainly not every business in Boca Raton. Just because there is money involved doesn’t make it a scam. AT&T calls my house every day selling me something. Sure it sounds good and yes there’s money involved but is that a scam? There are several legitimate and honest television production companies who actually deliver everything they say they will deliver. In fact, independent TV Production companies have quite the offer: They air on several national networks, at peak and prime time, some take the third-party educational approach which gives the participating company credibility… all for less than 25k on average. If anyone wanted to buy that much time on all of those networks, they wouldnt be able to do it for less than 100k. Think of a train that is already set on the tracks, ready to go, and all they have to do is load up the passengers; in this case, that would be the guests they invite onto their show.
This woman is just pissed that she didn’t have the money to participate. So she reacted emotionally, ruined the name of Vision Media and tarnished other legitimate TV production companies in the process. Saying that ALL TV production companies are the same is undeniably slanderous and obviously false. She did damage not only to Vision Media, but other companies in the industry, far surpassing 20 million dollars.
They KNOW they won’t get 20mil from her, if anyone sues for that amount they did an asset search and knows she isn’t worth near that much. What they are doing is trying to get her to settle and sign a gag order so she will take it down and pay them some money to cover their legal fees to file. It’s a number to scare the crap out of her and I’m sure they know that they can’t prove damages if they are charging $20k on average for a production. Proving damages is very hard to do. The page she wrote it has a Google Pagerank of zero! Who the heck even saw it?
Oh, Boca Raton is FILLED to the brim with companies like this. It’s despicable.
All of these Vision Media Television people used to work for Paradigm Media Group. Paradigm was sued by actor Michael Douglas back in 2006. According to the BBC, Douglas “agreed to host the Learning About series on the basis that it was educational and non-commercial. But he says the segments he recorded were used to drum up sponsorship for episodes which were never broadcast.”
Dr. C. Matthew McMahon, John Mimnaugh and Linda L. Galligan(aka Linda “Shields”) all worked for Paradigm Media Group. A name change was undoubtedly necessary after all that negative publicity. Enter, Vision Media Television. These people are the scum of the earth. They deliberately mislead small business owners and non-profits…those least likely to have the money for legal recourse. If there is a hell, they will surely rot there. We can only hope that they’ve not reproduced.
Wow. Glad to find this site. My wife got a call from these people wanting to showcase her burgeoning jewelry business on “a PBS special hosted by Hugh Downs.”
Guess we’ll give that one a pass!
Boca Raton is a scam itself. Nothing but concrete and gated communities. Want to swim or just walk on the beach? Be ready to pay a hefty fee to park your car in the few small parking lots for the public. Boca is a hot, humid bore. No wonder Vision Media, I mean Great American Whatever is based there. As far as the lawsuit, it will never go anywhere as it is only a tactic to scare people from exposing these thieves.