Loyalty to First Amendment and AOL Time Warner interest clashed
- From: J Flenner <varney@[redacted]>
- Subject: Loyalty to First Amendment and AOL Time Warner interest clashed
- Date: Thu, 02 Aug 2001 11:18:10 -0400
http://www.law.com/cgi-bin/nwlink.cgi?ACG=ZZZ7FU1QVPC
CNN Counsel's Resignation Highlights Position's Potential
Conflict Risks
Loyalty to First Amendment and AOL Time Warner interest clashed
Janet L. Conley
Fulton County Daily Report
August 2, 2001
It's not clear why Eve Burton resigned as vice
president and chief legal counsel of CNN News
Group, but her situation highlights the
potential conflicts faced by in-house counsel
to conglomerates.
Potential conflicts may be especially acute for
First Amendment lawyers in news organizations
that are part of conglomerates like AOL Time
Warner. Those lawyers are expected to have a
particular allegiance to journalistic
principles of free speech. On the other hand, a
lawyer's first allegiance is always to her
client.
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According to published reports in The New York
Times and elsewhere, Burton's abrupt departure
from CNN was prompted by her signing CNN's name
on an amicus brief filed in a case challenging
the publication of "The Wind Done Gone," a
parody of Margaret Mitchell's "Gone With the
Wind." In subsequent filings, CNN's name was
removed.
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