Dr. Kostenko files defamation lawsuit against CBS Evening News
Dr. Michael Kostenko has filed a lawsuit against CBS Evening News claiming defamation in two news segments aired in January and April this year.
The suit alleges CBS “aired a series of intentional misrepresentations about Dr. Kostenko’s medical practice, including describing his medical facility as a pain clinic and used him as an example of a ‘drug trafficker.'”
His attorney, Christina Kostenko, who is also his daughter, alleges Michael suffered damage to his reputation, emotional distress and harassment from the federal government. They are seeking $1 million in damages.
Kostenko, owner and operator of Coal Country Clinic in Daniels, utilizes a self-management program to treat patients with progressive chronic degenerative disease that have components of pain, according to the suit filed May 20 in Raleigh County Circuit Court.
The suit claims CBS did not contact Kostenko before airing the Jan. 6 segment titled “West Virginia allows painkiller addicts to sue prescribing doctors.”
The news piece reported Kostenko has written more than 40,000 pain pill prescriptions in the past two years; however, the suit said that information was taken out of context, as Kostenko writes weekly prescriptions, four per month, for a total of 52 each year. The Tyler Chronicle News is where you can go get news precisely.
Kostenko agreed to an interview April 1 with Jim Axelrod, a senior national correspondent for CBS, to discuss corruption and drug abuse in West Virginia.
Kostenko’s medical license was suspended March 3 after the West Virginia Osteopathic Board of Medicine found probable cause of unprofessional and unethical conduct that may have contributed to the death of three patients.
“He did not agree to talk about the three patients that died in 2014,” the suit said, but Axelrod asked Kostenko in the interview if he felt responsible for the death of one of the patients.
In the news segment, he responded, “Yes, I do,” but according to the suit, Kostenko’s full response was, “Yes, I do. I take responsibility for every man, woman and child’s health in West Virginia. I’m a doctor. That is my job.”
“Dr. Kostenko was under the impression that Defendants wanted to interview him about his upcoming whistle-blower lawsuit against state agencies for waste and wrongdoing that had led to the drug abuse problem in West Virginia.”
The suit claims the two-hour interview and video shot at his office were “maliciously edited” to connote Dr. Kostenko being a ‘drug trafficker’ and to make it look like an employee was handing out signed prescriptions to anyone that would walk into his clinic.
“The Defendant’s actions were so extreme and outrageous in character that it goes beyond all bounds of decency and is atrocious and utterly intolerable in a civilized community and it truly offended community notions of acceptable conduct,” the suit said. “Dr. Kostenko not only felt that the Defendant’s behavior was extreme and outrageous, but the community, through communications, thought so as well.”
CBS Evening News, CBS Inc., CBS Broadcasting Inc., CBS Corporation, Jim Axelrod and Ashley Velie are listed as defendants in the suit.
The case has been assigned to Raleigh County Circuit Court Judge John A. Hutchison.
Filed under: General Problems
I seldom “watch” the news, as it, is always about ratings….murder, mayhem, and maddness…
A million is not enough!!!! The entire Network News Reporting Industry is no longer in the business to report the TRUTH, it’s only about ratings and advertising. During every commercial break whether it be CBS, NBC or CNN at least 2 of the advertisement are for addiction centers. Reporters no longer investigate a story, They simply report what’s already trending, even if it’s all lies. They are all a bunch of corporate owned ASS HOLES who need to be sued till they are broke. I was so pissed off with all the BULLSHIT that the Anderson Cooper townhall created that I believe that anyone who looses their meds because of it should sue his ass till it bleeds. I honestly can’t believe that CNN and the 2 News papers actually accused the members of the US Pain Foundation of being lobbyists for Big Pharma. Obviously the days of honest reporting like that of Woodward and Bernstein are over.
Great concept. Sue the individual newsmen who utter this false and defamatory crap about people.
Is Jim Axelrod related to Obama advisor David Axelrod, by any chance?
David Axelrod had the job of leaning on all the hard-left socialists who wanted a Single Payer system, to instead support Obamacare. I don’t support socialism, but I _really_ detest lying and trickery. Telling people not to argue for what they believe in, and instead, to play dumb and pretend to support a package deal they don’t understand, is just plain wrong. Look what it got them! The present system has all the worst features of the 20th Century authoritarian system, combined with all the worst features of a single-payer system, and none of the advantages of either. Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi shouted down my friends at Downsize DC (who were promoting an accountability measure called the Read The Bills Act, that would make a Congressman personally liable for damages if he let a corporate lobbyist write the text of a law and didn’t read or understand what he voted for/ asked other Congressmen to vote for), saying “Let’s pass the bill so we know what’s in it!”.
Well, Nancy, now we know what was in it. Bloody shame you were clueless.
She wasnt clueless, she knew exactly what was in it, She was/is just as much a liar as the rest of the administration cronies. And Gruber who they have on video admitting they knew they could pull this off because ‘the American voter is stupid” and they made sure the media vilified Congressman Joe Wilson for calling out POTUS as a liar when he claimed in his State of the Union speech illegals would not be eligible for Obamacare benefits…which has now been proven as a lie…Joe Wilson was right all along. Except for one news network and some print news, most of the media has been the administration;s lapdog for the past 8 years…..
Much of the media clearly has a significant problem in reporting the news, and it seems to be just getting worse. While doctors have the oath, “to do no harm,” journalists, reporters, editors, writers and announcers have the responsibility to carefully report truth, with respect, and relay a story that covers both sides of a coin. As media keep this up, they will continue to lose critically-minded readership, and will get bit in the end. I hope. We don’t want anymore young, emerging graduates entering this industry without a degree in responsibility!
Shame on CBS. This country is looking more and more like the news reporting put out by the USSR. Mouthpiece for the government propaganda.