Dr. Phil‘s desire to move his cratered Merit Street Media into bankruptcy and continue his breach of contract lawsuit against ex-partners Trinity Broadcasting Network looks to have become all about “good faith,” in the words today of a federal judge.
“To suggest that Peteski or Dr McGraw’s preferred course of action was this bankruptcy defies logic and reality,” lawyer Charles Babcock told Judge Scott W. Everett at a hearing Tuesday of the “toxic” state of affairs that quickly developed between TBN and MSN. “Dr McGraw just turned 75, he did not want to have to go and start all over again. In fact, he fought it for months and months and months.”
Best known for his work over the years for Oprah Winfrey, Jackson Walker LLP’s Babcock added in court: “He tried everything he could to do to have his voice heard through Merit Street and not through a new entity, Envoy, which he’s had to build from, from the ground up.”
Less than a day after MSM filed a creditors backed plan for a sale of “media assets” and proposed “Global Settlement,” attorneys like Babcock for Phil McGraw‘s Peteski Productions. TBN, the creditors committee and others appeared Tuesday in Texas to argue over the Christian network’s prayers to toss the matter out and halt the move to Chapter 11. Overseeing a hearing over the next few days, Judge Everett had to spend a lot of time today managing expectations, dissecting text messages and emails, and pulling the whole thing from spiraling into a so-called “mini-trial” over the potential settlement.
As well as seeking to have Dr. Phil’s July suit and bankruptcy move dismissed in summary judgement, the Matthew Crouch-led TBN in August countersued the ICE raid joining TV shrink in the $500 million distribution deal that soured soon after it was unveiled last year.
“There is another broadcast entity that’s that’s being formed so that Dr McGraw’s voice is not silenced,” Babcock asserted Tuesday of Envoy, which was formed just before the MSM Chapter 11 process began earlier this year. “Now you can agree or disagree with his his voice and what he says. A lot of people agree. A lot of people find it fascinating. A lot of people like to hear and watch and listen to him, but it is a voice, and TBN was in the process of silencing that voice by refusing to comply with its commitment for distribution and by taking the actions that it did.”
Amidst the minutiae and machinations of the now busted MSN/TBN deal, the “breaking bread” of various executives on both sides, layoffs, “gangster moves,” stock swaps and ministry money moves, both sides have accused the other of brinkmanship – – especially in terms of discovery and depositions.
That carried over into today’s hearing.
“What we’re talking about is corporate authority in bad faith,” stated TBN lawyer Mark Moore to Judge Everett Tuesday as the session stretched into a second hour. “You’ve now heard a little bit of a dance where Peteski wants to talk about its intent, why it did something, why Mr. McGraw did something, but at the same time, they want to distance themselves from the decision making of the debtor,” the Dallas-based Foley & Lardner LLP partner added.
“You can’t have it both ways,” Moore continued “If Mr. McGraw is the actor, then Mr. McGraw is the actor, and I’m willing to accept that he was, because that’s what I think happened,” he went on to say to the judge. But you can’t have it both ways in the scope of this proceeding … that’s a side show. That’s grandstanding, and it’s a waste of time.”
Reps for Peteski had no comment this afternoon on the ongoing hearing. TBN did not respond to request for comment.
The post Dr. Phil Didn’t Want To “Start Over” In His Career, Court Hears In Chapter 11 Hearing Battle With “Toxic” Christian TV Network appeared first on Deadline.
