Setting the Record Straight

Now that the shock at the section of the revised settlement that awards the objectors a "special award" has sunk in, let's set the record straight.

In one of the most selfish moves of all time, the objectors, led by Irvin Muchnick, stopped a settlement that would have taken effect in 2005.  They dragged the class members through court after court in search of what Muchnick termed was a settlement actually worth between $600 million to $2.6 billion.  Now, nine years later, Muchnick agrees to basically the same settlement plus 14 per cent.  We've already commented on the massive inconvenience, let alone several deaths, to the class members. 

Muchnick had a litany of complaints about the original settlement, including something he called "License by Default,"  the C-reduction, which could have reduced payments to C-class members, the actual value of the settlement, and the lack of sub-class representation.  The Appeals Court summarily dismissed every one of Muchnick's claims, except the ONE issue that the C sub-class lacked sufficient representation.  And even with that ONE issue, it was a 2-1 decision, with the dissenting judge writing an unusually long 16-page dissent.

And for winning that one small point, which insignificantly affected the revised settlement, Muchnick is due a "special award?"  How in the world can this be considered fair?

Where is Muchnick's Apology?

I'm not even talking about an apology to the thousands of class members he's screwed.  I'm talking about the poor class members who have died and will not be able to share in the revised settlement.

We wondered about how many people have died while waiting to be paid.  Now the revised settlement confirms that there have been several deaths by the named plaintiffs.  That extra 14 percent is really going to help them.  The court papers provide for payment to their estates.  Well, isn't that wonderful. 

The court papers claim that Muchnick and the objectors deserve a special award for looking after the best interest of the class.

Well, I'll make you a deal, Mr. Chalmers.  Since you represent the C class, go ahead and poll them as to whether Muchnick deserves a "special award."

If more than 10 per cent say yes, Muchnick was looking out for their best interest, I'll shut up about it.

THIS INJUSTICE SHOULD NOT STAND

A revised settlement in the Freelance Writers' class action suit was filed with the US District Court in New York Friday.

There are several points in the revised settlement that I don't agree with, but can live with.

This paragraph, however, should not be allowed to stand:

"Revised Terms: Under the revised settlement, Plaintiffs’ Lead Counsel, on behalf

of counsel for the Category A and B works, will apply for a total fee-and-cost award of

approximately $3.3 million, plus a $2,000 special award for each of the nineteen Category A/B

representative plaintiffs and the estates of Derrick Bell and Andrea Dworkin. Counsel for the

Category C works will apply for an “all-in” award of $600,000 for attorneys’ fees, costs, and

special awards to the two Category C representative plaintiffs and eight former objectors. The

Defense Group has agreed not to oppose these applications."

Muchnick should not be allowed to profit for causing such misery to the class members.  It is tantamount to paying him a ransom to release payments for everyone else.  I am going to try to find out exactly what this "special award" is.  If it is anything that amounts to a substantial sum, I will urge all freelance writers to object to this travesty. 

This Dog Ain't Huntin' Anymore

Ever been to the dog races?

The greyhounds are taught to chase a mechanical rabbit that eventually disappears when the race is over.  The dogs never catch the rabbit.

Just like the dogs, freelance writers have been chasing a non-existent settlement for more than eight years.  Irvin Muchnick objected to a fair settlement in 2005 and writers have been waiting around ever since.  Muchnick is the kind of person who can only gain joy from others' suffering, so these last eight years must have been like Valhalla to the failed writer.

This carrot-and-stick routine has gotten stale over the last few months.  Muchnick's attorney keeps promising a revised settlement any day, but there are always new problems popping up. 

We're not playing their reindeer games any more.

This blog will continue to monitor the rantings and ravings of Muchnick.  Muchnick is a complete disaster who is never right about anything.  Therefore, there is an endless supply of new material to comment upon.  The traffic on this blog keeps increasing, so I guess all the people that Muchnick has screwed over the years are finding it through word of mouth.

But as for the primary reason for this blog--we won't be commentating anymore about a mirage of a settlement.

Kiss-of-Death Muchnick--Part Two

Congratulations to the Boston Red Sox for winning the 2013 World Series.

Congratulations to poor, dumb Irvin Muchnick for finding yet another area where he's completely wrong.  Muchnick waited until the series was tied 2-2 to jump in with his keen insight.

The failed writer picked the St. Louis Cardinals to win in seven games and predicted this about pivotal Game 5:

"GAME 5, tonight: Adam Wainwright bounces back from his horror show in the opener and outpitches Jon Lester this time. I even expect a breakout offensive performance from the Cardinals’ bats, which so far have been silenced by better and grittier pitching than they faced across 162 regular-season games and the first two rounds of the playoffs."

Of course, we all saw what happened:  Lester pitched another masterful game, St. Louis scored one run, and the Sox went up 3-2.

Proof of Muchnick's Irrelevance

Failed writer Irvin Muchnick has devoted dozens of posts to Representative George Miller's inquiry into USA Swimming "scandals."  Just out of curiosity, we visited Miller's website to check on this so-called investigation.  Turns out, Muchnick's histrionics are just that--bluster.

Here is a summary of the Congressman's priorities:

Rep. Miller has worked throughout his congressional career on behalf of children and the middle class. His priorities have included providing safe, affordable health care for all people, ensuring every child has access to a quality education, standing up against discrimination, and creating jobs and enhancing economic security for middle class Americans. He continues these efforts as a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, the Congressional Labor and Working Families Caucus, the International Workers Right Caucus, the Congressional Steel Caucus, the Congressional Native American Caucus, and the Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus. He also sits on the Bicameral Congressional Caucus on Parkinson’s Disease , the Congressional Task Force on Alzheimer’s Disease, the Congressional Diabetes Caucus, and the Congressional Mental Health Caucus.
In addition to his focus on strengthening and growing America’s middle class, Congressman George Miller is driven by a passion for the outdoors and the environment, as evidenced by his past chairmanship of the House Committee on Natural Resources. Congressman Miller is an advocate and leader for fish and wildlife protection and conservation, ensuring responsible stewardship of our lands and waters, and developing clean energy technologies. He has worked towards these goals as a member of the Congressional Wildlife Refuge Caucus, the House International Conservation Caucus, the Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition, the House Oceans Caucus, the Congressional National Parks Caucus, the Boating Caucus, the Trails Caucus, the House Recycling Caucus, the House Organic Caucus and the House Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Caucus.


And even in more detail:

Gun Control
America has an unacceptably high rate of gun violence. George believes there are several aspects of our nation's gun laws that need close scrutiny and reform. He knows there are reasonable steps that Congress can take to keep deadly weapons and ammunition out of the hands of those who would misuse them and harm innocent victims and law enforcement officers. For example, he supports legislation to close the ‘gun show’ loophole by requiring criminal background checks on all gun buyers. He supports the prohibition of large capacity ammunition clips like the ones used in Arizona when Rep. Gabby Giffords was shot. And he supports requiring child safety locks or storage containers for handguns and tough trigger lock standards to keep children safe.

Campaign Finance

Congressman Miller has a long track record of fighting to reduce the influence of money in our political process.  He is a long-time supporter of publicly financed elections, and he was an early and ardent supporter of a ban on unregulated "soft money" donations to national parties in the 1990’s, as well as a strong proponent of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform that was enacted in 2002.
More recently, Congressman Miller believes the Citizens United decision is one of the most damaging by a Supreme Court in decades because it has unleashed a flood of new special interest money in politics. In response, he cosponsored H.J.RES.90 in the 112^th congress -- Rep. Ted Deutch’s constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United and ban corporate spending in our elections, and plans to support that bill again when it is introduced this Congress. The amendment makes clear that corporations are not people but private entities prohibited from using their general treasury funds to influence voters. The resolution also restores legislators’ authority to limit and require disclosure of all political spending by individuals, unions, nonprofits, wealthy self-funded candidates, and all other sources.
George is also co-sponsoring bills by Reps. David Price, John Sarbanes and John Yarmuth to provide for public financing to get big money out of politics, as well as the DISCLOSE Act, offered by Rep. Chris Van Hollen, which would require special interests to disclose the names of contributors who give more than $10,000 for use in political campaigns.

LGBT Community

George believes that same-sex couples should be able to be married and that the government should not interfere in the personal relationships between two loving and consenting adults. He spoke out in favor of President Obama’s support of equal rights for gay marriage. He supports repealing the decades-old discriminatory Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) to ensure that the federal government recognizes all marriages – including same-sex marriages performed in the states that currently allow for it.
In addition, George is supportive of additional legislation important to LGBT families, including supporting and moving the Employment Non-Discrimination Act through his Education and Workforce committee, co-sponsoring legislation that would ensure that same sex partners have access to their partner’s health benefits in the same way married couples do, and legislation that would prohibit discrimination against adoptive parents.

Pro-Choice / Abortion

George is sensitive to the many different and strongly held views on abortion. His view is that abortion should remain safe and legal so that a woman and her doctor can make the right decision about whether or not to carry a pregnancy to term. George has always believed that at the same we must do everything we can to reduce the rate of unwanted pregnancies. Restricting access to safe and legal abortion could endanger the lives of women who might be forced to seek an unsafe procedure.

Immigration Reform

George believes that our county must pass comprehensive immigration reform. Comprehensive reform means that workers would be protected, businesses would have greater certainty, families could be reunited, and a path to citizenship could be created. He supports President Obama’s call for a bipartisan effort to fix our immigration system, but understands that obstructionist Washington politics make reform a tough reality at this time. He knows that Band-aid solutions can't address the 12 million undocumented immigrants currently here, the enormous backlogs in our legal immigration system.
George is a strong supporter of the Federal DREAM Act to allow immigrants who were brought here as children through no fault of their own to earn a path to citizenship. He voted for the Act when it passed a Democratic-held house in 2010, but the bill was blocked by Senate Republicans. George is supportive of President Obama’s historic announcement on June 15 to allow DREAMer students to apply for “deferred action” and has held workshops to help the nearly 3,500 students in his district who are eligible for deferred status. Read more about George’s work for DREAMers.

Legalization of Marijuana

George has a history of supporting some efforts to eliminate federal penalties for responsible marijuana use. George believes that we can no longer afford to spend money on an ineffective drug enforcement strategy of criminalizing responsible personal adult marijuana use that the public no longer supports and which consumes law enforcement's limited resources and time. He is a long-time supporter of legislation by Rep. Barney Frank to eliminate a federal prohibition on federal financial aide for any person with a drug conviction, believing it is against our interests to deny an education to young people who want to improve their lives and participate on our economy.


The rest of the information concerns recent issues and the welfare of his constituents.  NOWHERE ON HIS WEBSITE IS THERE EVEN THE BRIEFEST MENTION OF A SWIMMING SCANDAL.  We've already gone into great detail in previous posts as to Muchnick's lack of credibility, but if this doesn't convince you of the failed writer's total irrelevance, nothing will.

And The Band Played On

"I am the father of two sons and two daughters with child-rearing costs. The main benefit to me of an improved settlement in this case is that my dear wife of 20 years might stop reminding me of what a worthless piece of garbage I am."

        -- Irvin Muchnick Declaration 2006


The charade goes on.  Another deadline (October 15) has passed and no revised settlement.  According to failed writer Irvin Muchnick's attorney there are now "document revision" issues and--surprise, surprise--a publisher still needs to sign off.

If this thing ever does get signed, which I seriously doubt, maybe the writers in the class will finally get to question Muchnick about what happened to the vast riches ($600 million to $2.6 billion) the failed writer said the settlement was worth when he objected eight years ago. 

Wonder if these guys sit in a back room somewhere coming up with ideas for the next delay...and the one after that...and the one after that.