A lawsuit against MSNBC host Ed Schultz can go forward, a federal appeals court ruled Friday.
In May 2011, Michael Queen, a broadcast engineering staffer at NBC in Washington, filed suit against Schultz claiming that he had the idea to bring the radio host to TV. Queen and Schultz met in January 2008 at NBC in Washington.
Queen claims he approached Schultz and asked him if he had anybody helping him try to land a TV show. “No,” Schultz is quoted as saying in the complaint. “Now you’re it!” Queen set up the taping of a “McLaughlin Group”-style program at WUSA-TV, the CBS affiliate in Washington, DC.
Queen claims to have also pitched CBS, Fox News, MSNBC and some syndicators, but nothing came of those meetings. A year later, MSNBC president Phil Griffin reached out directly to Schultz, and a deal was made.
In August 2012, the U.S. District Court for Washington, DC tossed out Queen’s complaint and Schultz’s counter-claims. “Insofar as Queen claims that he and Schultz formed a partnership to develop a television show and that Schultz breached his duty of loyalty under District of Columbia partnership law, Queen is entitled to present his claim to a jury,” Friday’s decision reads.
(h/t The Washington Post)