Bart Hubbuch sues NYPost over firing

[E5 Yaz]

He was fired Jan 27 after an anti-Trump tweet, even though he apologized.

After Hubbuch posted the off-duty Inauguration Day tweet reading “12/7/41. 9/11/01. 1/20/17,” his supervisor called him, furious, according to the suit.

“What are you doing? You live in New York City. There are people even in here that want me to fire you. You're going to take that down right now and apologize or I will fire you,” executive sports editor Chris Shaw allegedly fumed.

Nevertheless, on Jan. 27 he was fired — though he said supervisors could not point to any written social media policy.

Hubbuch even cites the Dec. 9, 2015, cover of the Daily News — which showed Trump beheading the Statue of Liberty — to prove his point that concern over the president is widespread.

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/writer-sues-new-york-post-firing-anti-trump-tweet-article-1.2967303

 

[Red(s)HawksFan]

Hubbach is a hack and only known around these parts for being an anti-Patriots troll and he probably deserved to be fired because he's terrible at his job, but he's probably got a case against the Post for this. If they don't have a social media policy, what he tweets on his account is his business. His was certainly not the only social media post that day along those lines.

 

[Was (Not Wasdin)]

Does he even have a claim? I'm not familiar with the laws of NY, but I thought that if he is an at-will employee, he can be fired for any reason or no reason at all.

 

[joe dokes]

Unless there's something about NY law, I dont see what his claim is either. I dont see any sort of discrimination

 

[Joe D Reid]

Unless there's something about NY law, I dont see what his claim is either. I dont see any sort of discrimination

I am familiar with NY law, and there's nothing here unless there is a discrimination hook (i.e. some other employees in some other demographic group did the same thing and weren't punished) or there's something in his contract.

 

[Buck Showalter]

Maybe him and Billy Bush should get the same lawyer for a trip of 'litigation to nowhere'.

 

[LeoCarrillo]

I'm no expert on the legal viability of the claim, but as unprovable as it may be, this is 100% true:
“The Post does not exist to generate a profit; instead, it is operated in a manner designed to serve the ends of Murdoch and his other business interests, such as 21st Century Fox,” Hubbuch states. “That gives Murdoch a strong incentive to please Trump and to avoid upsetting him.”


The Post is no longer a legitimate newspaper. Well, it debatably hasn't been for a while. But at least it used to ankle-bite those in power. Like if Woodward and Bernstein had a little Collie dog. Now, conversely, it is shameless propaganda for those in power (at least in DC).

Simply put, it is being used as a pawn to flatter DJT on an every-day basis (he told the Times' Maggie Haberman recently that he reads three papers every morning: the NYT, the Washington Post, and the NY Post) in a larger game to gain favor with the White House. DJT already let Big R "advise" on the selection of FCC chair Ajit Pai. From that, expect deregulation to benefit 21st Century Fox and News Corp. My guess is the lifting the 39 percent cap on national TV-station ownership (21stCF is currently at 37 percent) and/or elimination of the prohibition of cross-ownership of TV stations and newspapers in the same market (the NY Post got a rare exemption decades ago). If Big R doesn't own the LA Times by 2020, I'd be surprised.

 

[crystalline]

After Mr. Murdoch “used the editorial page, the front page and every other page” of The New York Post “to elect Ronald Reagan president,” as the Republican congressman Jack Kemp once put it, Mr. Murdoch won a regulatory glide path for his successful effort to build a fourth broadcast network, Fox.

 

[Bleedred]

Maybe him and Billy Bush should get the same lawyer for a trip of 'litigation to nowhere'.

He can join Paul Gaston and those 13 women that President Trump was going to sue for "falsely" accusing him of sexual battery

 

[yep]

Does he even have a claim? I'm not familiar with the laws of NY, but I thought that if he is an at-will employee, he can be fired for any reason or no reason at all.

Well, you can fire at-will employees for no reason at all, but there are certain reasons why you *can't* legally fire someone (e.g., for being Jewish).

So Bart has to prove that he was fired for one of the reasons that you're not allowed to fire people for, basically. And I know approximately zero about NY employment law, but in most (all?) of the country, most employers are usually allowed to fire people for expressing the wrong political views, and/or for posting incendiary tweets and such.

 

[BannedbyNYYFans.com]

PFT reporting that Hubbuch has withdrawn his lawsuit. The Post filed a motion to dismiss recently then released a statement today:

“In response to the motion to dismiss, Mr. Hubbuch has voluntarily withdrawn his lawsuit, acknowledging his claims were frivolous.”

Confirmed by Hubbuch's side with one caveat:

Hubbuch’s attorney, Scott Lucas, disputes a key portion of the statement from the Post. “The claim was voluntarily withdrawn,” Lucas told PFT by phone on Wednesday afternoon. “There has been no acknowledgement that it was frivolous.”

 

[Rusty13]

PFT reporting that Hubbuch has withdrawn his lawsuit. The Post filed a motion to dismiss recently then released a statement today:



Confirmed by Hubbuch's side with one caveat:

A no brainer move by his attorney. Hubbach was looking at some heavy duty costs for frivolousness on this one.

 

[Investor 11]

Hubbuch has resurfaced at DeadSpin with an article about Kraft and his business ties to Caesars Entertainment. I'm curious for to hear the opinion of those with law or contract experience as the actual crux of the argument centers on the interpretation of a single paragraph. I'm on my phone or I'd quote it out myself.

http://deadspin.com/this-is-the-story-about-robert-krafts-casino-holdings-t-1794594130

 

[edmunddantes]

It als hinges on an "and" clause without an "/or".

From Hubbuch with original emphasis

It addresses the five-percent rule, but still appears to prohibit Kraft’s presence on Apollo’s board of directors. Emphasis mine:

NFL Personnel may own interests in publicly-traded enterprises where less than one-third of the enterprise’s gross revenues or operating profit in any of the last three years is attributable to gambling-related operations, so long as the NFL Personnel does not own more than 5 percent of the company’s stock and does not serve as an officer or director of the company.

Because of how Hubbuch jumps around from "fact" to "fact", i couldn't figure out if Kraft triggers both clauses as necessitated by the "and" only. Plus I'm not going to try to figure it out for a hubbuch piece. The numbers you would need from Hubbuch are below. You need to go elsewhere to get how many class A Shares are outstanding to figure Bob's ownership %. Not sure if right apollo group or class of shares but Nasdaq shows them as having 187 million outstanding. Quick math. Not 5%, but it's late and I don't have a calculator. That's from my head.

For the last three years, Kraft has held a spot on the board of directors of Manhattan private-equity behemoth Apollo Global Management. Among Apollo’s investments is one it made in 2008, when it teamed up with another private-equity outfit, TPG Capital, to buy a controlling 60 percent stake in Caesars.

Apollo agreed to eventually give up much of that stake as part of a messy bankruptcy fight that’s ongoing. But even after that is finally resolved later this year, Apollo will still share a 16 percent investment in Caesars Entertainment, and will possess what Apollo describes as “significant” investments in the powerhouse British-based bookmaker Ladbrokes (which takes NFL action) and in American Gaming Systems, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of slot machines and other casino games.

Kraft started amassing his current stake of 267,240 Class A shares in Apollo shortly after joining its board in May 2014, according to SEC filings. Apollo’s latest annual report, filed with the SEC in February 2017, lists Kraft as one of just eight directors of the company. Only five other people, including founder and CEO Leon Black, own more shares in Apollo than does Kraft.

I will say the lack of an "/or" clause on that director thing leaves a pretty gaping loophole in the rule. Unless their is controlling language elsewhere that hubbuch isnt showing. From what I can tell Apollo doesnt have 33% gross revenue or operating profit from gambling from Hubbuch's reporting. So no mark there. Which would trigger the so long as clause. Even then, Kraft doesn't own 5% so he's clear there. He is on the board but that isn't the only condition in the paragraph Hubbuch quotes. So no biggie. Remember though IANAL.


The fact that Hubbuch spends so much ink on all this unrelated axe grinding tells me hasn't got the goods. He's trying to bury and overwhelm you with a lot of extraneous information. He's also trying to trip you up by planting the 33% gross revenue number then showing a 60% stake in Caesars. Those are not the same thing.

 

[Leather]

Deadspin really wants everyone to hate the Patriots, huh? It's unbelievable.

 

[Smiling Joe Hesketh]

They've run 3 pieces this week on the Pats and all are negative. I like some of their writers, but holy hell are they bitter about the Super Bowl. Digging up Hubbach to write a nothingburger hit piece on the Pats is a new low for those guys.

 

[joe dokes]

The "real" story, if there is *any* story, is that the requirements are intentionally fuzzy to allow ad hoc enforcement.

The fact that Hubbuch spends so much ink on all this unrelated axe grinding tells me hasn't got the goods. He's trying to bury and overwhelm you with a lot of extraneous information. He's also trying to trip you up by planting the 33% gross revenue number then showing a 60% stake in Caesars. Those are not the same thing.

Odds are that Hubbach doesn't understand the difference.

 

[Average Reds]

The "real" story, if there is *any* story, is that the requirements are intentionally fuzzy to allow ad hoc enforcement.



Odds are that Hubbach doesn't understand the difference.

Hubbach's lack of sophistication here is painful. Kraft is a wealthy man, so in sheer dollar terms, his investment in Apollo seems large. But it's an incredibly small stake in terms of % of ownership and yet Hubback makes it seem (by implication) as if Kraft has a significant, direct stake in Ceasars, which is preposterous.

If he wanted to write a damaging article exposing the NFL's hypocrisy about gambling, he should have stuck with DraftKings. Instead, he wades into an area that he doesn't understand and pens a story filled with false premise after false premise. It's disgraceful.

 

[GammonsSpecialPerson]

Deadspin really wants everyone to hate the Patriots, huh? It's unbelievable.

Deadspin really wants clicks, and Patriots hate gets clicks from Patriots haters and (more) from the Defend The Wall crowd.

The Kardashians also generate similar effects for other sites, and for similar reasons.

 

[Rusty13]

Deadspin really wants everyone to hate the Patriots, huh? It's unbelievable.

They've upped the ante with the Kraft/BB/Trump connection. Now the "gloves are REALLY off".

 

[Mooch]

I particularly enjoyed Hubbuch ostensibly writing about the NFL's hypocrisy on ties to legal gambling into a 6 paragraph screed about the Post/Murdoch that quietly undermines his entire piece:

"The Post also was a household name, and the freedom to editorialize at will was unlike anything I’d ever known at my previous staid newspaper stops. Sure, the job involved making a lot of mountains out of molehills for the sake of a splashy back page, but it fit my style. And many of those angles and headlines are truly funny, welcomed by an audience that’s smarter than it gets credit for. Even a lot of the athletes I covered appreciated the schtick."

This hit piece is a perfect representation of Hubbuch's admitted "style" of making mountains out of molehills.

 

[Leather]

The Post (apologies to SoSHers who do a great job coming up with the headlines) is a tabloid rag. It's not a "newspaper" in any real sense of the word, just as Fox News is not really "news". Its entire MO is to appeal to prurient interests and take simplistic viewpoints that are already shared by its readers.

Give me a fucking break with this "Oh but our bias and shit stirring was actually funny and people liked it!" as a justification. And of course the athletes loved it, as long as they weren't the target.

I used to ride the subway every day in the days before smartphones, so on those days I found myself without reading material and not enough change to buy a copy of the Times, I had to settle for The Post, if only to look at box scores. In a daily edition of the Post, there was/is about 20 pages of ads, 10 pages of sports, 6 pages of socialite/gossip bullshit, 5 pages of local "news", each piece about 200 words long, and 5 pages of national "news" taken from the AP and tucked somewhere in the middle. Then there was about 8 pages devoted to financial stuff and stock listings. And those pages, by the way, were only about 10" x 12", so not particularly large.

All in all, for anyone above a 6th grade reading level, it took 40 minutes to read (as in, literally read everything in the paper) the Post cover-to-cover.

 

[Marciano490]

The Post (apologies to SoSHers who do a great job coming up with the headlines) is a tabloid rag. It's not a "newspaper" in any real sense of the word, just as Fox News is not really "news". Its entire MO is to appeal to prurient interests and take simplistic viewpoints that are already shared by its readers.

Give me a fucking break with this "Oh but our bias and shit stirring was actually funny and people liked it!" as a justification. And of course the athletes loved it, as long as they weren't the target.

I used to ride the subway every day in the days before smartphones, so on those days I found myself without reading material and not enough change to buy a copy of the Times, I had to settle for The Post, if only to look at box scores. In a daily edition of the Post, there was/is about 20 pages of ads, 10 pages of sports, 6 pages of socialite/gossip bullshit, 5 pages of local "news", each piece about 200 words long, and 5 pages of national "news" taken from the AP and tucked somewhere in the middle. Then there was about 8 pages devoted to financial stuff and stock listings. And those pages, by the way, were only about 10" x 12", so not particularly large.

All in all, for anyone above a 6th grade reading level, it took 40 minutes to read (as in, literally read everything in the paper) the Post cover-to-cover.

What's the old joke about the Post being for people who find USA Today too cerebral?

 

[Leather]

What's the old joke about the Post being for people who find USA Today too cerebral?

The Post would never trust its readers to read a bar graph or a pie chart correctly, unless it was in reference to alcohol (the former) or a sex scandal (the latter).

 

[Rusty13]

 

[joe dokes]

Hubbach got fired from the NY Post for being too offensive.

That's like . . . .

 

[LeoCarrillo]

The Post (apologies to SoSHers who do a great job coming up with the headlines) is a tabloid rag. It's not a "newspaper" in any real sense of the word, just as Fox News is not really "news". Its entire MO is to appeal to prurient interests and take simplistic viewpoints that are already shared by its readers.

Give me a fucking break with this "Oh but our bias and shit stirring was actually funny and people liked it!" as a justification. And of course the athletes loved it, as long as they weren't the target.

I used to ride the subway every day in the days before smartphones, so on those days I found myself without reading material and not enough change to buy a copy of the Times, I had to settle for The Post, if only to look at box scores. In a daily edition of the Post, there was/is about 20 pages of ads, 10 pages of sports, 6 pages of socialite/gossip bullshit, 5 pages of local "news", each piece about 200 words long, and 5 pages of national "news" taken from the AP and tucked somewhere in the middle. Then there was about 8 pages devoted to financial stuff and stock listings. And those pages, by the way, were only about 10" x 12", so not particularly large.

All in all, for anyone above a 6th grade reading level, it took 40 minutes to read (as in, literally read everything in the paper) the Post cover-to-cover.

The Post is garbage now. When I started 15 years ago, at least it covered the city well. My favorite story: A Poland Spring-and-pretzel vendor near Central Park rats out a competitor for failing to have a vending license. The competitor: two girls with a lemonade stand. We called him "SOURPUSS." But the best part is the story did a 180 on Day 2. It turned out the two girls were like the great-great-great-great-granddaughters of Henry Clay Frick. As in the Frick Collection. They had trust funds worth millions. And the vendor was some hardworking guy trying to support his family here and overseas.

Anyway, that was then. Now it just sucks.

 

[joe dokes]

Anyway, that was then.

In the late 60s and early 70s Paul Zimmerman was a football beat writer.

 

[Marciano490]

I love when Deadspin tries to play lawyer. I'm still laughing about the time they tried to say the Manziel's didn't have that much money because they found a sale of land for $1 between family members and concluded the acreage couldn't have been that valuable if it'd been sold for just a buck.

 

[Ed Hillel]

ESPN and Bob Ley gave Hubbuch a platform for this BS today. Ley was also a sad panda because the Pats didn't cancel their White House trip after Hernandez offed himself. Those dastardly Pats.

 

[InstaFace]

Just because I share your (collective) disdain, I went and looked it up. Apollo Global is of course one of the largest private equity funds in the world; it has $192 Bn in assets under management, of which $44B is in private equity. Apollo owns 30% of the vehicle that owns Caesar's holding company, which was acquired for $23B in debt and $7B in equity, so they're into Caesars for ~$2.1B cost basis, or just over 1% of their AUM. And it's in bankruptcy, and they've written down the carrying value of their unrealized investments from the fund that put money into Caesar's.

Even leaving aside matters of control - and the 3 founding partners of Apollo have a majority of the voting rights of the firm - Bob Kraft as <5% owner of Apollo has a microscopic economic interest in the performance of Caesar's Entertainment and Ladbrokes. And he has absolutely no control of the ownership vehicle, of which Apollo owns 30%, nevermind the operating vehicle.