By Henry Walker

Last year, when Metropolitan Times, a local, black-oriented newspaper, changed its name to Times-Mirror Tennessee, it seemed logical to assume that publisher Sam Latham had talked to Times Mirror, the huge media conglomerate, about using the company’s name.

Not.

Nor, according to a lawsuit filed last month, did Latham bother to answer written warnings from Times Mirror attorneys who asked him in December to “phase out” use of the conglomerate’s name, which is registered as a federal trademark.

Now Latham finds himself a defendant in federal court, accused of violating federal and state trademark laws. Times Mirror, which publishes the Los Angeles Times, Baltimore Sun, Hartford Courant, and Newsday, as well as three other newspapers, 18 magazines, and several professional publications, is asking, among other things, for “all profits” of Times-Mirror Tennessee, punitive damages from Latham himself, and legal fees.

The suit claims that Times Mirror initially “was willing to assume” Latham had adopted the Times-Mirror name “in good faith” and “without knowledge” of the conglomerate’s registered trademark, but that, in light of Latham’s failure to respond to the company’s warnings, the publisher’s conduct is “knowing, willful, and intentional.”

To win a trademark suit, however, Times Mirror has to prove that there is a “likelihood of confusion” among readers and advertisers between the small, black weekly and the California-based media conglomerate. Although both parties publish newspapers, does anyone really buy the Times-Mirror Tennessee thinking it’s published by Times Mirror?

Not more than once.

Latham did not return calls about the trademark suit. An attorney for Times Mirror said Latham doesn’t return her calls either.

Donkey serenade

As last week’s Tennessean reported, the Gallatin News-Examiner and its owner, the Gannett newspaper chain, got clobbered with a $650,000 libel verdict after the Gallatin paper accidentally published comments suggesting that a local student enjoyed having sex with donkeys. The Tennessean didn’t mention, however, that the jury later awarded the plaintiffs another $300,000 in punitive damages.

That means, in the context of this case, that the jury found “by clear and convincing evidence” that the defendants were not merely negligent, but “reckless” in failing to catch and delete the obscenity-laced paragraphs, which a News-Examiner reporter had written as an in-house joke.

Courtroom observers said the plaintiff’s attorneys repeatedly emphasized the wealth and influence of Gannett, the nation’s largest newspaper chain, which also owns The Tennessean. It’s unlikely the Sumner County jurors would have awarded such large damages against a locally owned newspaper. “I’m sure there will be an appeal,” a Gannett attorney said Monday.

No Pulitzer

The Tennessean’s questionable series about environmental problems at Oak Ridge, which the newspaper entered in the Pulitzer Prize competition, will not win an award and isn’t among the finalists, the Scene learned Monday, the day before the Pulitzer board announced the finalists and winners of journalism’s most prestigious awards.

The Tennessean was, however, one of at least five newspapers whose Pulitzer entries were challenged for accuracy, according to Monday’s New York Times.

Asked to describe the complaints about The Tennessean’s entry, Pulitzer administrator Seymour Topping declined to comment. However, he did say, “If a newspaper were a finalist for an award or if it won an award, I believe I would have an obligation to tell you about the complaints.

“Under the circumstances,” Topping said, “that’s not necessary.”

Dollars and sense

Laurels to WSMV-Channel 4 and WKRN-Channel 2 for giving viewers continuous, live coverage of Middle Tennessee’s recent tornadoes. When the storms hit on Friday, April 3, both stations junked their regular afternoon programming to provide up-to-the-second tornado warnings.

A dart to WTVF-Channel 5 for deciding that soap operas, talk shows, and commercials, interspersed with weather news and printed “crawlers” across the bottom of the screen, mattered more than coverage of life-threatening disasters.

The decision, of course, was all about money. Channels 2 and 4 each lost thousands from advertisers who had paid to run ads during Friday afternoon’s shows. Channel 5, on the other hand, may have been late with its tornado warnings but came out ahead in advertising dollars.

The station that calls itself “Nashville’s news and information leader” needs to remember its slogan...or change it.

Odds and ends

Just when you think The Tennessean’s formula-driven news judgment can’t get any sillier—the largest deal in U.S. corporate history, Citico and Travelers, becomes a short item under “Business Briefcase”; the sale of Trans Financial, a major area lender, merits nine sentences on Page 2E; and the merger of NationsBank and BankAmerica, creating the country’s largest bank in terms of total branches and deposits, gets buried on Page 4E. (The next day, the paper ran another story about the bank merger, this time on the front page, without mentioning that the news had run the day before.)

During the same week, on the front page of its “Local News” section, The Tennessean ran a large color photo and 20 paragraphs about two baby owls discovered nesting in Maury County; a big photo and 18 graphs about children playing doctor to learn about immunizations; and two pictures and six paragraphs about a tee-ball game in Donelson. “Tee ball is often a child’s first introduction to organized sports,” an anonymous reporter wrote, “and the teams are often coed.”

More often than not, The Tennessean only makes sense if you read it back to front.

Eh-oh

Teletubbies, a controversial but wildly popular English television show targeted, improbably, at 1- and 2-year-old babies, debuted on most PBS stations last week but won’t be seen in Nashville until June.

Blaming “purely operational” problems, WDCN-Channel 8’s acting program director, Harmon McBride, said there are no available time slots until after the school year ends. McBride, who’s seen a half-dozen episodes of the series, acknowledges that the show raises questions about whether “children that age need television as a primary source of external stimulation” but predicts Teletubbies “will be very popular” with Nashville viewers.

The show stars four, brightly colored, baby-like creatures with television screens in their tummies and TV antennae on their heads. They clap, jump up and down, and like to say “eh-oh.” According to media reports, British infants—and adolescent pot-heads—apparently watch in hypnotic fascination. After a year, ratings have skyrocketed.

The Teletubbies have now crossed the Atlantic, accompanied by considerable hype in the national media. Signs on New York City buses advertise the show as “PBS for Beginners.”

McBride says he personally would prefer that 1- and 2-year olds learn “from other human beings” rather than from television programs, but he doesn’t anticipate any parental backlash.

“At worst, it’s just an entertaining program that won’t do any harm,” McBride said. “At best, the babies may learn something.”

“At worst, it’s just an entertaining program that won’t do any harm,” McBride said. “At best, the babies may learn something.”

To comment or complain about the media, leave a message for Henry at the Scene (244-7989, ext. 445), or send an e-mail to henry@nashscene.com.