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Body found from Ebersol crash

Confirming everyone's worst fears, authorities found the body of 14-year-old Teddy Ebersol under the charred wreckage of a chartered jet that crashed on takeoff Sunday from the Montrose, CO airport. His father, NBC Sports Chairman Dick Ebersol, and 21-year-old brother, Charles, survived the crash are hospitalized in Grand Junction, CO. NBC said both are expected to recover fully. Two crew members also died in the crash and a third is in critical condition at a Denver hospital.

CBS dropped from fire lawsuits

CBS has been dropped as a defendant in lawsuits over a nightclub fire in West Warwick, RI that killed 100 people. The network's only connection to the deadly fire had been that a cameraman from its affiliate, LIN Television's WPRI-TV Providence, had been filming inside when the fire broke out. LIN has been named as a defendant in many of the lawsuits, as has Clear Channel, because the concert had been promoted on one of its radio stations.

Infinity stations to air World AIDS Day program

Infinity Broadcasting stations will air a HIV/AIDS-related special in conjunction with World AIDS Day. Hosted by MTV's John Norris, the half-hour program will be broadcast as part of select stations regularly-scheduled public affairs programming on Saturday, 12/4 or Sunday, 12/5. Every year on 12/1 the world highlights the progress made in the battle against the HIV/AIDS epidemic. This marks the 17th year of the international event.

The program will bring issues surrounding HIV/AIDS to light and to discuss how the disease affects women differently than men. It will also address those women most at risk, those living with HIV and those who care for people with HIV/AIDS. The special is part of a $380 million media commitment Viacom has made toward HIV/AIDS public education since 2003 as part of its ongoing collaboration with the Kaiser Family Foundation. Dawn Averitt Bridge, founder of The Well Project and VP/Public Policy at the American Foundation for AIDS Research, Dr. Judith Auerbach, will be the featured guests.

Nanny sues Imus over wrongful termination

The Smoking Gun reports a New York woman who briefly worked as a nanny for Don Imus has sued the radio host for wrongful termination, claiming she was canned for bringing a harmless cap gun and pocketknife with her during a trip last Thanksgiving to the family's sprawling New Mexico ranch: "Nichole Mallette, 24, also claimed in her New York State Supreme Court lawsuit, a copy of which you'll find below, that she was defamed when Imus later announced on his program that he had been forced to "disarm" his nanny, whom he labeled as dangerous and a "terrorist." In her complaint, filed yesterday by the lawyer who represented the woman who recently accused Bill O'Reilly of various improprieties, Mallette claimed that she brought the cap gun with her so that she and Imus's five-year-old son could "play cowboys" at the 4000-acre ranch. As for the pocketknife, Mallette noted that the 1-1/2-inch item was never unsheathed from a leather harness affixed to her belt. In her lawsuit, Mallette alleged that she endured "frenzied questioning" by Imus and his wife Deirdre, who woke her at 1 AM to grill her about the pocketknife and the cap gun, which Mallette said she did not use nor show to Imus's son. After Deirdre Imus told her, "Pack your things, you're terminated," Mallette was escorted off the property at 4:15 AM by a ranch employee and the radio host. Mallette, a Brooklyn resident, was hired by Imus last October 23 and cared for the star's son at homes in Manhattan and Connecticut, as well as the New Mexico property (according to its mission statement, the "sole purpose" of the so-called Imus Ranch is "to provide the experience of the great American cowboy" to seriously ill boys and girls and children who have lost siblings to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome). Mallette noted that during two separate stays at the ranch, which features a 14,000-square-foot adobe hacienda, "neither sick children nor children who had lost brothers and sisters to SIDS were present," just Imus, his family, and ranch employees. Along with Imus and his wife, Mallete named as defendants Westwood One and NBC, which simulcasts Imus's show on MSNBC."

The suit: http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/1130041imus1.html

Phil the Sore fails to soar into LA airspace

The Aids Healthcare Foundation (AHF) is taking Los Angeles broadcast television stations to task in general, and KCBS-TV and KNBC-TV in particular, over their refusal to air a 0:30 spot called "Stop the Sores," staring Phil the Sore. It's all part of a syphilis prevention campaign. The two stations listed have rejected the ad outright; affiliates of WB, UPN and Fox have offered to run it, but mostly in overnight hours after 11:30 PM.

AHF says it has had no problem running the exact same ad on cable networks such as CNN, A&E, HGTV and Bravo. It will use them again in the present instance. Meanwhile, it is seeking advice from the FCC on whether the stations are within their rights in rejection the spot.

"I am perplexed and saddened by this censorship by Los Angeles are broadcast television stations of an important, effective, and I believe fairly benign, public health message," said AHF's Karen Mall. "Since the Phil the Sore print and billboard campaign first began running here two years ago, syphilis rates have gone down in LA, and testing and screening have increased. It is unfortunate that we cannot utilize the enormous power of broadcast television to enhance the public health through such effective STD prevention messages."


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