Key Points
- A Court TV producer has filed a whistleblower complaint alleging Scripps misled partners by signaling continuity while planning layoffs and a planned shutdown of its current TV feed.
- The complaint says eliminating the Atlanta newsroom will end gavel-to-gavel coverage despite public assurances from Scripps and Law&Crime executives.
- Law&Crime maintains Court TV will continue live trial coverage, while most current staff are not expected to transition after the sale.
A television producer for the E. W. Scripps Company’s legal network Court TV has filed an internal whistleblower complaint that accuses the broadcaster of making misleading remarks about the long-term fate of the network.
The complaint, submitted to Scripps’ legal department early Thursday morning, said pending layoffs at Court TV will make it impossible for the network to continue its commitment to comprehensive live coverage of court proceedings and similar programming when the channel is acquired by Law&Crime.
In an announcement on Monday, executives from Scripps and Law&Crime promised Court TV would remain its own distinct brand with ongoing coverage of legal cases.
“We look forward to continuing its important tradition of giving viewers an inside look at some of the most fascinating and important trials,” Dan Abrams, the founder of Law&Crime, said in a statement. “Court TV will become our hub for all trial content and coverage as its own standalone channel and brand.”
In follow-up comments on social media, Abrams promised Court TV would continue producing live courtroom programming and offer live streams of court trials after Law&Crime acquires the network.
Despite that commitment, some noticeable programming changes have already occurred. Immediately after the sale was announced, Court TV stopped producing live video feeds of courtroom trials on its YouTube channel and ended a prime-time legal analysis program. (The YouTube streams relaunched early Thursday morning.)
The programming changes are a direct result of upcoming layoffs that will affect all but a dozen employees at Court TV, according to employees familiar with those plans.
In their whistleblower complaint on Thursday, the Court TV producer wrote that Scripps has made public comments about the transaction that strongly imply the network will continue in its current form, despite internal plans to significantly wind down the linear channel over the next few weeks.
“Scripps’ public-facing communications about the Court TV sale to Law&Crime are being presented in a way that reasonably signals continuity of the existing Court TV coverage product, while the internal operational plan is to discontinue the current linear operation and eliminate the Atlanta-based newsroom/production capability that delivers gavel-to-gavel trial coverage,” the complaint said.
The complaint said Court TV intends to wind down its current linear operations on March 11 at 10 p.m. Eastern Time, at which point the network will not be able to continue with its current live coverage of trials.
“When the feed is turned off and the newsroom capability is eliminated, the existing Court TV coverage product does not continue in its current form, regardless of what happens to the name/brand after that date,” the whistleblower wrote.
The complaint accused Scripps of misleading its business partners and affiliates through its press release and other communications by suggesting the Court TV product will continue in its current form once Law&Crime acquires it in March.
“Communicating continuity to the public and business partners while implementing an operational shutdown and newsroom elimination is misleading by omission at minimum,” the producer wrote. “It creates reputational and partner risk for Scripps and raises governance questions about who authorized the public language and whether it accurately reflected the actual plan at the time it was issued.”
The whistleblower requested Scripps’ legal department to forward their letter to the Board of Directors and demanded a “Board-level review and an immediate records-preservation hold.” A spokesperson for Scripps said they were aware of the complaint, took it seriously and was “handling it through appropriate channels.”
In a telephone conversation on Wednesday, Law&Crime President Rachel Stockman said Court TV will continue to produce live trial coverage and other programming, and that the channel will still offer a linear network that is available on broadcast, cable and streaming platforms.
Scripps has signed a three-year deal to continue offering Court TV on its digital broadcast TV stations, and Law&Crime will inherit distribution agreements that maintain Court TV’s availability on streaming apps, Stockman said. (The interview took place before the whistleblower complaint was submitted, which doesn’t accuse Law&Crime of any wrongdoing.)
Most of Court TV’s current employees are not expected to move to Law&Crime when the network is transferred, Stockman said. Scripps has offered affected workers the opportunity to apply for other roles at the company, as well as severance pay and job-placement benefits. The offer is contingent upon a signed separation agreement that includes a non-disparagement clause.
