Massey and its chief executive officer, Don Blankenship, sued the large union, local daily newspaper the Charleston Gazette, and political advocacy group West Virginia Consumers for Justice, charging defamation and “business conspiracy” in press statements the three released about the coal company.
The verbal battle stems from a series of negative television spots aired during a state political race last year between Warren McGraw and Brent Benjamin, both campaigning for a state Supreme Court seat. During the campaign that Benjamin ultimately won, Blankenship contributed more than $US2.5 million to a series of negative advertising spots attacking then Justice McGraw.
Last December, McGraw sued Blankenship, one of the ad’s creators and the media outlet that aired them. In response, West Virginia Consumers for Justice produced pro-McGraw ads that attacked Blankenship for his role in the campaign.
Two of the three groups have responded to the Massey suit, filed June 15 in the Circuit Court of Fairfax County, Virginia. West Virginia Consumers for Justice chairman Kenneth Perdue, who was named in the suit, has not yet responded but said that a court response would be filed soon, according to a Platts report.
“Don Blankenship’s attitude seems to be that if he can’t have his way and bully people into doing his bidding, he’ll sue them,” said UMWA president Cecil Roberts. “Well, I’ve never backed down from bullies, and I’m not going to start now.”
“We’re looking forward to vigorously contesting and prevailing over Blankenship’s desperate attempt to use a lawsuit to gag those who are the voices of the citizens of West Virginia,” he said.
Charleston Gazette editor James Wright is now asking why his newspaper is a part of the suit when the news stories he printed were obtained from a wire service. “Why would Massey and Blankenship waste court time, merely because our newspaper reprinted [Associated Press] items, just as other West Virginia papers did?” Haught said in a statement. AP is not named in the suit.
According to court papers, both Blankenship and Massey Energy are suing the UMWA and the West Virginia Consumers for Justice and their presidents; Blankenship is the sole complainant in the case filed against the Charleston Gazette.
