The estate of Paul Harvey, a legendary River Forester and iconic radio broadcaster across decades, has filed a federal lawsuit against Paramount Global. The suit alleges that Paramount illegally used a 90-second clip from a 2008 “The Rest of the Story,” broadcast in a segment of its “Landman” series.
Further the suit alleges that the show’s producers edited Harvey’s piece to suggest he was supportive of big oil. Jaime Wolf, a partner at Pelosi Wolf Spates LLP and the attorney for the estate, was quoted in a press release saying, “Paramount not only grabbed a long, copyrighted audio clip without our client’s permission, but they also twisted the intent of Mr. Harvey’s words by editing his original broadcast.”
The suit says that Harvey’s unedited copy from the original broadcast quoted multiple news stories and suggested that oil was at the core of virtually every major problem the world faces. Harvey went on to say that these problems could be readily solved through the development of alternative fuels. But the edited clip appeared to communicate a different message, according to Wolf.
“The producers had no right to falsify the late Mr. Harvey’s message and turn him into an unwitting shill for big oil,” said Wolf.
Landman is set in the oilfields of West Texas and stars Billy Bob Thornton, Demi Moore and Jon Hamm. The Harvey clip led the finale of the show’s first season and was broadcast in January. The series has since been renewed for a second season.
The suit said the series had a first-season budget of more than $150 million. Wolf called it “baffling” that the producers did not seek out the estate’s permission to use the clip. He said the estate offered a possible settlement in March but never heard back.
Paul Harvey and his wife Lynne moved to River Forest in 1944. His twice daily radio segments were, at the peak, broadcast on 1,200 radio stations plus 400 Armed Forces stations. In Chicago, his programs were a mainstay on WGN radio.
In his 2009 obituary in Wednesday Journal, Bruce DuMont, an Oak Parker and, at the time, head of the Museum of Broadcast Communications, was quoted as telling the Chicago Tribune that “Paul Harvey was the most listened to man in the history of radio. There is no one who will ever come close to him.”
Paul and Lynne Harvey, together with their son Paul Jr., were a notable part of the River Forest and Chicago social scenes. The couple was married for 67 years. Both Lynne Harvey and Paul Harvey Jr. were actively involved in the radio productions.
