http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2004-07-21-ambushtv-main_x.htm
Jim March, a lobbyist for the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, says he was deceived when he was asked in May to appear on The Debate Show, now known as Crossballs: The Debate Show.
The contract stated that The Debate Show was a "tentative title" and that the show would air on a Viacom channel, without specifying Comedy Central. March was invited on to discuss gun rights. But, he says, the show became "one long, grotesque genitalia joke."
Matt Besser, a Crossballs executive producer who plays a fake expert on each show, posed the argument as an anti-gun advocate that guns are substitutes for a lack of sexual prowess.
" 'When was your first homoerotic experience?' That was question No. 2 or 3," March says.
"I am beyond furious," he says. He maintains that the show wasn't satire but a "personal attack."
March considered walking away during taping, he says, but had been paid $200 and put up in a hotel room and felt he should fulfill his obligation. In the end, he says, "they played me like a fiddle, very professionally."
And March says it was political. He says Besser "got what he figured was a right-winger — although I'm more libertarian than GOP — and thought, 'I'll bushwhack the bejesus out of him.' "
March's lawyer has sent a letter threatening legal action on the basis of fraud if the show airs. Comedy Central says March signed a release, and the channel is "confident it will hold up against his complaints."
David Logan, lawyer and dean of the Roger Williams University Law School in Bristol, R.I., says that if a release or waiver has been signed, it makes it difficult to sue. "It's entertainment, maybe low-brow entertainment. You're setting people up — ha-ha, practical joke. It's not intense cruelty. It doesn't go to the soul of the persona and their identity. It's sophomoric stuff."
Jim March, a lobbyist for the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, says he was deceived when he was asked in May to appear on The Debate Show, now known as Crossballs: The Debate Show.
The contract stated that The Debate Show was a "tentative title" and that the show would air on a Viacom channel, without specifying Comedy Central. March was invited on to discuss gun rights. But, he says, the show became "one long, grotesque genitalia joke."
Matt Besser, a Crossballs executive producer who plays a fake expert on each show, posed the argument as an anti-gun advocate that guns are substitutes for a lack of sexual prowess.
" 'When was your first homoerotic experience?' That was question No. 2 or 3," March says.
"I am beyond furious," he says. He maintains that the show wasn't satire but a "personal attack."
March considered walking away during taping, he says, but had been paid $200 and put up in a hotel room and felt he should fulfill his obligation. In the end, he says, "they played me like a fiddle, very professionally."
And March says it was political. He says Besser "got what he figured was a right-winger — although I'm more libertarian than GOP — and thought, 'I'll bushwhack the bejesus out of him.' "
March's lawyer has sent a letter threatening legal action on the basis of fraud if the show airs. Comedy Central says March signed a release, and the channel is "confident it will hold up against his complaints."
David Logan, lawyer and dean of the Roger Williams University Law School in Bristol, R.I., says that if a release or waiver has been signed, it makes it difficult to sue. "It's entertainment, maybe low-brow entertainment. You're setting people up — ha-ha, practical joke. It's not intense cruelty. It doesn't go to the soul of the persona and their identity. It's sophomoric stuff."