Posted on 10/16/2003 11:05:21 AM PDT by BillyBoy
Wednesday, October 15, 2003
By The Leader-Chicago Bureau
GOP Senate candidate Chirinjeev Kathuria announced that he was suing the Chicago Tribune for $100 million in a defamation complaint.
CHICAGO -- GOP Senate candidate Chirinjeev Kathuria says that the Chicago Tribune's weekend story about him may have ruined his chances of becoming the next U.S. Senator from Illinois. He also contends that the weekend front page story may have damaged his reputation in the business and medical professions. He's so angry that he's filed a $100 million lawsuit in DuPage County against the Chicago Tribune and political reporters Rick Pearson and Andrew Zajac for defamation.
"Illinois voters are supposed to be the ones who decide who gets elected, not one reporter and not one paper writing an article that was completely not balanced and not fair ," Kathuria, a naturalized Indian-American immigrant, told reporters on Tuesday. "I find that ridiculous."
Kathuria's attorney Andrew Spiegel told the Illinois Leader that Pearson's story pointing out alleged inconsistencies in Kathuria's business, educational and medical resume was a commentary under the guise of being a news story. Spiegel said that after receiving the answers to specific questions about Kathuria's business dealings as listed on his resume, Pearson chose to ignore information Kathuria provided him confirming the claims on his resume.
The complaint, filed on Tuesday, lists specific paragraphs in the Pearson story where, the suit alleges, Pearson and Zajac, with reckless disregard for the truth of much of the information contained in the vast majority of these paragraphs, deliberately distorted the information given to them in order to turn positive achievements into negative schemes and in so doing, defamed Kathuria and damaged his business and political reputations.
For example, the complaint says, Kathuria provided the two Tribune reporters with specific details concerning the X-Stream Networks company which the published story did not include. Kathuria says that he and his group invested $55,000 in the company, and then was instrumental in arranging a $28 million deal with Lucent Technologies. Then X-Stream Networks sold the company's stock at $75 million, a success the story does not acknowledge , Kathuria said.
The story also alleges, Kathuria's attorney said, that Kathuria was guilty of criminal conduct -- that of using false information on his resume to "woo business partners."
Kathuria contends the defamatory statements included in the Pearson story could cost him in excess of $100 million in business dealings .
"It just doesn't make sense to me why the Tribune would put a story like this on the front page of its weekend edition," Kathuria said. "I haven't committed anything criminal, I've never committed fraud, I have no lawsuits against me, I haven't been arrested for any type of crime, but this is on the front page of the Tribune, this is incredible."
Jon Zahm, Kathuria's campaign manager, listed three possible motivations that the Tribune, Pearson and Zajac may have had in writing and publishing such a "hatchet job" :
The surprise win of Indian-American Bobby Jindal, who just won the Republican nomination in a 17-way Louisiana gubernational primary. "The win was a wakeup call to some folks who would not like to see that sort of diversity and that sort of good, qualified conservative candidate win an election," Zahm said. "It is possible that someone was concerned about that type of a scenario developing here in Illinois."
Zahm speculated that it would be in the best interest of Democrats for Kathuria to be out of the primary because he is creating inroads into traditionally-Democratic minorities. Seventy percent of Indian-Americans now vote Democrat, and Kathuria remaining in the race could derail Democrats who will need their people to pull Democrat ballots in the March primary.
Finally, Zahm said that a January 29, 2003 column in the Illinois Leader.com may have caused Rick Pearson to be angry with him. "We're concerned that because of some of my comments that there may be some malicious retribution," Zahm said. "Damage is done to me at the same time damage is done to Dr. Kathuria."
Reporters asked Kathuria to respond to the various Chicago Tribune allegations of exaggerating credentials and overstating the facts.Kathuria withheld declaring the value of his personal fortune, but at one point said that he is estimated to be worth $30 to $70 milliion .
Another portion of the Illinois Leader interview was questioned in the Pearson story. The question surrounded the notion of whether or not Kathuria had stated that the "knew" John F. Kennedy, Jr while he was attending Brown University. Within hours after the Illinois Leader interview was published on the web, two slight edits were made to the interview at Kathuria's request.
One change was to delete the amount of money Kathuria told the reporter Fran Eaton he had just spent in the purchase of a pay phone company. While the incident remains in the interview, the reported amount of money that Kathuria spent on the pay phone company was deleted, Kathuria contending that "making the amount of the purchase public would possibly endanger the whole transaction." The amount was removed as requested. A secondary minor change made at the campaign's request was the focus of the Tribune's Pearson, who inquired of the Leader correspondent why a change had been made in the original interview.
Pearson asked Kathuria what happened with the interview statement. "I was misquoted," Kathuria told Pearson.At Tuesday's press conference, Illinois Leader reporter Eaton asked Kathuria if he thought the Leader had misquoted him. She told Kathuria that she had an audio tape of the interview, and could play it for him.
"What the Leader reported, I did say, they were right," Kathuria said at the press conference. "However, when I looked at the quote, I knew that I had misspoken about my personal acquaintance with John F. Kennedy, Jr., and asked that the information be corrected, and they did as I requested ," he told reporters.
The Kathuria suit also takes on an internet-age journalism dilemma. Because the Tribune story was not only published in the print edition, it has been published on the Tribune's website, where the story and the alleged defamation is obtainable "24 hours a day, seven days a week, anywhere in the world," Kathuria's attorney said. "Each time a person links into the story on the website, it is considering republishing the story, " Spiegel said.
After the news conference, another possible motivation for the negative Tribune story was raised by press conference attendees. "Isn't it true that Andy McKenna Jr's dad is part owner of the Chicago Tribune?" one Kathuria supporter said. "If that's true," Zahm said, "then I would hope that Andy McKenna, as well as the other Senate candidates, would criticize this story for its defamatory and malicious nature." McKenna was given the opportunity to respond, but has not yet replied to the Illinois Leader inquiry about his father's involvement with the Tribune.
The Chicago Tribune issued a statement on Tuesday saying that they had reviewed Kathuria's complaints, and would stand by their reporters.
Did Zahm really think that his column about Pearson could have been a reason for this story to be written? "In this political game that we're all in, things can get very personal," Zahm said. "To think that nobody watches or cares what is being written about them out there is wrong," he said.
The Kathuria case against the Tribune, Pearson and Zajak was filed in DuPage County on Tuesday in the 18th Judicial Circuit.
The Chicago Tribune is even worse. I checked back for the past decade and it has wholly been taken over by Rockefeller Republicans who can't STAND when conservatives do well in the GOP. In the primary, these guys actually endorsed UBER-RINOs Corrinne Wood for Governor, Bob Coleman for A.G., Loleta Dickerson for Senator, and Bob Kustra for Senator. They won't even back a conservative in the GENERAL election unless A) The guy is a solidly "safe" incumbant will be in office for life, or B) The guy is some unknown with zero $$$ who is token opposition to a super corrupt machine RAT. In a contested race, forget it. Ask Illinoisans about how spiteful a paper has to be back little Lisa "my daddy is the state chairman!" Madigan for A.G. just to "stop" Joe Birkett
The Tribune believes the GOP always has to be more LIERAL to win elections, and of course we can't have conservative MINORITES expand the party's appeal. Oh no, that would be bad-- heavens knows what would happen in a pro-life, pro-gun, pro-soveignity CONSERATIVE Indian candidate got crossover votes from hispanics, indians, and arabs and THEN threw his endorsement to Jack Ryan or Steve Rausenburger if he didn't win the primary!
I was at the press conference and saw their documented rebuttal. I'm can't remember the exact details, but they refutted a ton. Among the incorrect "facts" listed in the Tribune article:
-- They claimed a landmark paper that Dr. K. wrote on bio-technology was an assignment in "high school or college". His campaign manager proved it was written in 1992 when he was WAY past college age and published shortly thereafter. The Tribune also conviently forgot that Dr. K. was accepted into Med school during his senior year in H.S. and graduated valedictorian from Downer's Grove H.S.
-- They claimed one of the companies he has operating in 1/3rd of the India sub-continent was "defunct", when it fact, it is still operating. Another time they claim he "lied" about owning a company that is no longer in operation, when in fact the old resume they looking at was put out when he still DID own company so it was factual at the time. And the CURRENT resume on his website is 100% up to date with the correct information.
-- They said he was 38 years old and pathetically "still lives at home with his parents". This was a nice technicality since he still owns his mother's house in Oak Brook and stays there very often, like most close-knit Indian families. Of course, they forgot to mention he owns three properties, including the lake front Condo where he stays near his office. Since he has over $30 million dollars, he doesn't need to stay with daddy if he chooses not to.
-- They said he was trying to get votes by passing himself off as a "practing physician", when he never made any such claim. He DID say that the U.S. Senate needs another doctor in the Senate with a background in Health Care, and he, of course, HAS a doctorate from Brown University and HAS an entensive background doing Health Care POLICY.
--They said he never served as a consultant to the Swedish government and lied about this to pad his resume. Wrong again. Dr. K. provided documentation to prove his work and said dozens of Swedish officials would be happy to confirm that he was a consultant and deviced the plan to set up their system simular to the HMO system. He did happen to do that in college too, but the Tribune just pretends that it must be mean he's wasn't really a consultant.
They tried to tear this guy's credibitiy to shreads and he turned around and gave them a dose of their own medicine. I hope the other candidates take notice because any conservative running could be the next target of the Tribune's slime machine.
Tribune gets slapped upside the head!
Tribune gets slapped upside the head!
Funny you should mention that, because I happen to have the original Tribune article here and I can find those exact quotes I mentioned earlier where they put down extremely misleading information and often flat-out lies. From their 'Candidate too good to be true' article:
“...The Oak Brook business promoter [is] in DuPage County, where he grew up and still lives with his parents...this is only one of many striking inconsistancies” [No mention of all his other property, eh, Tribune?]
“He is...on life support, $3 million in debt, and has been sued by supplies...he has record of corporate flops and non-starters” [Yeah, a guy with a net worth of at least $30-$70 million dollars much have a huge record of flops and be 'on life support' Oh, and nevermind the five successful companies he's run, including the one that went from a $55,000 investment to $75 million and then merged with another for $2.9 billion]
“His campaign resume also lists him as the author of several scholarly health related papers…the papers were actually written in college and high school” [The landmark paper he lists on his website was written in 1992. He doesn't tote any of his high school papers on his website. Dr. K. is just shy of 40 so he certainly wasn't in school when he wrote those articles in the 90s]
“Kathuria’s resume lists him as a consultant to Swedish government who helped device a plan to restructue primary health care in Sweden…something the national board of health and welfare could find no record of” [He has no problem calling up the Sweds and finding records of his during his press coference. As he noted, the Tribune could have asked him and he would have been happy to provide amble proof]
“His medical degree is part of his campaign message. On the stump, he empathizes that he is a physician and says he would compliment Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) a heart surgenon turned politician, in the debate on health care. But Kathuria has never practiced medicine.” [ He never claimed to have 'practiced medicine', in fact his website says a "NON-practing physician. In fact, not only would he compliment Bill Frist with his background on health care, but his background is MUCH better suited for adapting government policies than Frist. Frist did operations, Dr. K. delieved Health Care policy and buisness managment. He has both a Doctorate AND an MBA. Which do you think is more useful in the Senate?]
“There is scant evidence that Agatal, or its successor firm, Vimari Wireless, has been providing much to anyone…Kathuria has made different claims about Medical Oasis on his resume…Kathuria is using his resume not only to win votes, but also to woo business partners” [ This company that supposely isn't doing anything covers 1/3rd of the Indian subcontient and is still very active. The other one is poised to become the top optical-imaging center because he signed a contract that will gurantee that growth to that point within a few years, which the Tribune conviently forgot to mention]
>> and Kathuria suing the Tribune is like Fox suing Al Franken--it will come back to bite him in the butt big time. Hubris strikes again. <<
What are you saying, that smeaer artists like Pearson and Fraken should be allowed free reign? Do you think Franken's latest book is honest too? This is the guy who's still gloating that Rush is a 'big fat idiot' when he currently weighs more than the guy!
He's lived in Downers Grove all his life. He's a Sikhh, dark complexioned, and wears the well-know Sikhh turban. He's a successful younger business man.
He made an interesting talk to the group. He doesn't have a prayer to be a DC senator, of course, but he's got conservative guts, no doubt about it.
I served as an elected official in Du Page county for twenty years and let me tell you the Trib's reporters are a bunch of liberal ignoramusi. The libs in the media just can't stand the idea of minority candidates actually choosing to run under the conservative GOP banner...ergo....there must be something seriously wrong or corrupt with those who do.
So....smash 'em down!
Leni
The Tribune/LA Slimes needs to get an ass kicking.
Two candidates have already dropped of the race and they appearently don't want Dr. K. around to push the rest of the field to the right on the gun issue.
KATHURIA ARTICLE SLANTED
I am responding to Rick Pearson’s slanted and inaccurate article titled “Too Good to be True” regarding Dr. Chirinjeev Kathuria M.D., M.B.A. Rick Pearson has a attempted a biased review of Dr. Kathuria’s background, selecting only those views which can be interpreted as casting a negative spot light on Dr. Kathuria’s background.
Rick Pearson called me only a few days prior to writing his article. It was immediately obvious to me from his leading questions that he was not in pursuit of obtaining unbiased and fair review of Dr. Kathuria. He attempted to place words in my mouth in search of information that would implicate Dr. Kathuria. He was on a mission and dismissed and ignored all the positive statements that I made. Finally, when he could get no negative information on Kathuria, he shifted has character assault on me.
I am a physician with bachelor’s and medical degree from Brown University and Masters degree from Harvard University. I am a Neuroradiologist who has trained at Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions and served as an Assistant professor at this institution. I have served as the Director of Radiology at a number of hospitals. I have written many medical articles including landmark articles about AIDS in women which has affected countless lives.
Chirinjeev Kathuria and I were roommates at Brown University Medical School. For a number of years, our paths diverged. I went to Harvard for a masters degree in biostatistics and Chirinjeev Kathuria went to Stanford for a masters degree in business. Years later, our paths crossed again and we founded HealthCite and subsequently, Medical Oasis.
HealthCite raised 10 million dollars from Amgen corporation and forged relationships with the likes of Eckerd Corporation. As with most Dot Com corporations, HealthCite rose and waned with the tide of the internet bubble with no fault of the management. Unlike most other internet corporations, the company still exists although it has shifted its focus. As with most internet companies, it is easy to find disgruntled employees who are more than eager to make statements. Rick eagerly latched onto one such employee in his article.
Medical Oasis is a growing imaging center corporation poised to develop numerous de novo imaging centers and to acquire existing medical imaging corporations. Medical Oasis has developed the relationships and the contracts to quickly grow to be one of the larger players in this field. Rick Pearson attempted a superficial, naive and biased search to obtain proprietary and sensitive information related to the corporations involved. Needless to say, he got his facts wrong and presented them without respect to neither Dr. Kathuria nor the corporations involved.
It was obvious that he had done intense research on my background. He knew private details of where I lived as a child and I wondered how and why he knew so much about me. With a knowledge of my life time achievements, he ignored everything and focused on my purchasing of Dot Com names. In the early days of the internet, it was perfect acceptable to buy any names and only later was this ruled to be inadvised. Rick ignored the fact that I had never made any proposition to obtain any monetary reward and returned the names without dispute or question. An international ruling was done on massive scale regarding numerous names purchased by internet aficionados worldwide. Those names included BulingtonCoatFactory.net. This was not an individual trial as Pearson attempts to portray in his article and I barely knew about it until it was done. Rick was on a search mission to implicate any of Kathuria’s friends for any impropriety. If this is all that he can find after an in depth analysis of the private lives of Dr. Kathuria’s friends, it is a testimony to Dr. Kathuria’s character.
I am an American, a native New Yorker who has grown up in the U.S. since the age of six. Our American political system is not unfamiliar to me. The media is supposed to be unbiased but in this particular case, a deplorable, shameful and obvious attempt at a character assassination has been made under the guise of an article in an otherwise prestigious newspaper.
Naiyer Imam M.D., M.Sc.
New York
Yeah, the press will investigate Republicans thoroughly and then just report anything they can find that's negative. They won't look into Democrats unless they can find things that are positive, which is rare. Lying by omission is what I call it. If I was like the media and let's say you knew nothing of football and I was a football fan who liked Walter Payton over Emmitt Smith, I'd tell you that Payton held the record for total yardage in a career for many years. I'd then tell you how many times Smith fumbled in his career and how many games Smith played in where his team lost, and that would be all the information I'd give you. Lying by omission.
And by the way I fully support protecting trademarks, that's why you get trademarks. Unfortunately the case was before a corrupt Clinton-appointed judge who cares nothing about the law and everything about politics. This system of corrupt judgships is part of the corrupt Democratic machine where no one is doing there job but are just sticking a knife in honesty and justice for each other and for political gain. These judges have no honor.
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