LA Times on Leno and gag order

by Brian McKim & Traci Skene on March 12th, 2005

As we reported here yesterday, Judge Rodney Melville has clarified the gag order on Jay Leno. Leno will be permitted to joke about Michael Jackson, just not about any aspects of the trial that might be related to the matters that Leno might actually testify about… we think. Anyway, the Los Angeles Times’ Steve Chawkins filed a story on the hearing which mostly repeats that which was contained in the earlier AP story. (Ah, but the AP story didn’t wrap things up with a quote from SHECKYmagazine.com editor Brian McKim!)

“Heaven forbid that for a few weeks Mr. Leno will not be able to make cruel jokes at Mr. Jackson’s expense,” a defense motion stated. […]

That view was shared even by a comic or two.

Brian McKim, a New Jersey-based stand-up comedian who runs sheckymagazine.com, a trade website, said Jackson’s right to a fair trial trumped Leno’s right to poke fun at it.

“If people are going to pick a fight about freedom of speech and the 1st Amendment, they should pick a better fight than this,” McKim said.

“When it’s all said and done, all we’re talking about here is some jokes.”

It looks like Leno won’t be able to recruit the like of Drew Carey, Carrot Top and Roseanne as surrogate joke tellers. From a publicity standpoint, perhaps it would have been better to not challenge the gag order. NBC was getting plenty of press, complete with clips, of the surrogate stunt. Read the rest here.

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