JC Corcoran

While segments of the local media seem obsessed with showering the semi-retired host of Channel Nine's "Donnybrook" with accolades, pardon me if I have a slightly different view of Martin Duggan. In the late 1980s, the then-vice-president and general manager of Y98 filed a laughably frivolous lawsuit against me and my partner at the time, claiming we had "defamed" her. For years, the story was played up in the local media, and I was characterized as a reckless broadcaster who had verbally "attacked" a broadcasting colleague. One problem. The minute the judge in the case listened to the tape of the show he tossed it out of court. End of story, right? Nope. The pack of "Donnybrook" jackals, led fiercely by Duggan, felt it was their job to override the judge's decision and convict me themselves, even though none of them had listened to the tape of the show or had even a fundamental understanding of the case. Applying idiot logic, legal remedies that don't even apply to cases like this and other rhetoric designed to depict the story the way they wanted it to be, rather than the way it actually was, Duggan, and especially the pukish Rich Koster, carried on for a full five and-a-half minutes in what was reminiscent of the kangaroo court scene in "Animal House!!!" For people who seem mystified as to why I am vilified in some corners of this community you need look no further than this. To be completely exonerated by a court but convicted on a TV show is, unfortunately, the kind of crap I've been dealing with in this town for over a quarter-century.