Chak's Investigation and Editorial: Kyle Chak to Bay Area Media Blogger Rich Lieberman of 415 Media - Stop Harassing Women and Use of Copyrighted Images

The recent news article about Rich Lieberman, who blogs about news personalities within the San Francisco Bay Area called 415 Media, is the target of a letter published in Medium, spreading quickly to multiple media outlets. The list of 29 news anchors and reporters who signed the letter can be seen at the link, but the articles were calling Lieberman as a "misogynist." So here is why I personally am asking Lieberman to stop harassing women and especially the use of images not authorized by station owners. This is something I believe must stop - the harassing of women by a media blogger, and that to me may have crossed the line so badly that women had to speak out. (Note that a misogynist is a person who dislikes, despises, or is strongly prejudiced against women.)

I personally have looked into his countless blogs over many years and some of them do look very disturbing to me, including some images obtained illegally. CBS Corporation (in particular; the company is based in New York), which represents some of the women who are journalists at KPIX in San Francisco, has asked Rich Lieberman multiple times in the comment sections of several of his blog posts to remove images of news anchors and reporters, but Lieberman ignored their requests. It is unknown whether Disney (who owns ABC which in turn owns KGO), FOX (which owns KTVU), or NBCUniversal (which owns KNTV) have asked Lieberman to take down images from his blogs. KPIX, however, has not yet taken action against Lieberman nor has yet filed a lawsuit - as is the other television stations with news operations in the Bay Area.

I also found that multiple posts within Lieberman's blog had images of news personalities that are not to be used without permission of the owners, especially with CBS-owned KPIX and not citing sources within his blog. For instance, when Lieberman talked about KPIX weather personality Brian Hackney, he used an image of Hackney on his blog without citing that the image belongs to CBS Corporation. Until just recently, no news outlets have addressed serious concerns about Lieberman using copyrighted images of news personalities without permission. 

While CBS Corporation had made comments on Lieberman's blog asking him to stop using copyrighted images that belonged to CBS without permission, I have yet to hear any comments by Disney, NBCUniversal, and Fox Television Stations about Lieberman's behavior towards women, and also whether CBS plans to file a lawsuit or legal action against Lieberman. I will follow up when the owners of Bay Area TV stations make a comment. 

But for me, I am asking Rich Lieberman to do the right thing - that is, to stop defending himself about the comments he made to the San Jose Mercury News and tell why you chose to continue making women who are journalists very uncomfortable to the point that they have to speak out.