FL-SEN

Greene: My Lawsuit Is 'Just As Important' As Run For Senate

Evan McMorris-Santoro | September 2, 2010, 8:40AM

Jeff Greene

Jeff Greene, the defeated Democratic U.S. Senate candidate in Florida and current anti-media crusader, says he's on a mission to break the cabal of reporters who he says have dominated Florida politics for too long. His $500 million lawsuit against two prominent Florida papers, he told me yesterday, is his new quest to set Florida on the right path.

"To me this is just as important as running for office," Greene said of his libel suits against the Miami Herald and St. Petersburg Times. The billionaire investor claims that his multi-million dollar campaign for the Democratic nomination went down in flames, in part, due to reporting that was at best shoddy and at worst out-and-out biased. Greene seemed more inclined to believe the latter, suggesting that one reporter, the Times' venerated political correspondent Adam Smith, was more interested in taking down Greene than reporting the facts.

"It is our firm opinion that the allegations in this lawsuit are preposterous," Times editor Neil Brown said in a statement. "We believe Jeff Greene is a sore loser and he's blaming the newspapers because he can't accept the verdict of the voters."

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Jeff Greene

Billionaire FL Dem Loser Blames And Sues Media For Loss

Evan McMorris-Santoro | September 1, 2010, 11:16AM

Jeff Greene

Not news: a politician blames the media for his epic downfall and convincing defeat. News: the politician takes the media to court and asks for $500 million in damages.

That's the man-bites-dog story playing out in Florida today, where Jeff Greene -- the billionaire investor who just got crushed by Kendrick Meek in the Democratic primary for Senate -- is filing suit against two state papers for, he says, tanking the Senate campaign he spent tens of millions from his personal fortune on.

The New York Times reports that Greene is filing a libel suit against the St. Petersburg Times and the Miami Herald, claiming that the papers' coverage of his infamous yacht and his even more infamous path to super-wealth were false and so damaging as to cost him the Democratic nomination.

As the Times reports, Greene's suit "is a rare step for a political figure." Many losing candidates come to hate the media, but few go so far as to take it to court.

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