Imus Sued for Being Imus

Flatsigned Press claims national radio host Don Imus insulted the company last year in ads it paid for to promote a book by Former President Gerald Ford on the Warren Commission's investigation into the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

And now they're suing. In the lawsuit, filed in Manhattan's state Supreme Court, Flatsigned Press Inc. says Imus insulted the company last year in ads it paid for to promote a book by Ford on the Warren Commission's investigation into the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy. On his "Imus in the Morning" show, the talker told his listeners and viewers the publishers "have been waiting for (Ford) to croak so they can unload these (books)," Court papers also claim that at a point where Imus was supposed to say Ford hand-signed the books before he died, Imus asked, "How else would he sign them, with his foot?" the lawsuit says. Other complaints by the Nashville based publisher are Imus calling the ad spots "cheesy," and saying of Ford's death, "Now that he's flatLINED, you go to flatSIGNED.com," Marc Held, Flatsigned's lawyer, said Thursday that Ford approved the book and signed the copies Flatsigned was selling. Imus was told to read the script "word for word" and not insult the sponsor, "but he kept doing it," Held said. Imus, 67, read the first script as written, court papers say, but in later readings of the script, he made "unequivocally unacceptable" remarks about the publisher, even after officials at CBS, WFAN's parent, asked him to stop. Flatsigned said it paid for two 30-second ad scripts a day for three days — Jan. 29, 30 and 31, 2007. The lawsuit asks for $4 million in compensatory damages for breach of contract, libel and malice, and for another $59,000 spent for a newspaper ad that ran after the commercials on Imus's show. According to the Associated Press, a spokeswoman for Imus did not immediately return a call for comment, and his lawyer, Martin Garbus, was said to be traveling. In a related story it is rumored that Flatsign is considering suing ice for being cold.