Ten Questions to a Media Lawyer

Mark Caramanica is a partner at Thomas & LoCicero in Tampa

1. How’d you get into media law? What was your first job?

It was twofold. While in law school a journalist friend of mine connected me with a job in the sports department at The Gainesville Sun. I was attending classes during the day and working the sports desk at night, doing layout and editing. It was an exciting time to be there with Steve Spurrier resigning out of nowhere and the Gator men’s basketball team playing in the NCAA championship. It was my first exposure to how newsrooms operated and were organized. I was also searching for some direction in law school as taking classes like corporations and estates/trusts made me ill. I discovered there was a joint degree program with the journalism school where you could focus on media law and receive a communications master’s degree along with a law degree. The program’s director, Bill Chamberlin, offered me a research assistant job at the Brechner Center along with tuition assistance. Everything sprung from that. I, like many others who are currently in this space, owe a huge debt to Dr. Chamberlin. He was a mentor to so many of us.

2. What’s the best career advice you’ve gotten?

What stands out most are some of the pithy comments a brilliant senior partner at my first firm job would say to me when I was a fresh associate. “This is not a treatise on the law, if you write it like this we lose.”  “Acting like you’re right is 90% of the battle.” And the one that still resonates, if you misstate something, “You are either a liar or a baboon. That is how the other side will portray you, so don’t do it.”

3. What’s your most memorable case?

A few matters come to mind. First was representing The New York Times in a defamation case filed by a horticultural sciences professor at my alma mater, the University of Florida. So that one became personal for me. The plaintiff complained about every other line in a front-page Sunday story about the food industry (both biotechnology firms and organics companies) recruiting academics to advance their respective messaging. We knocked out every statement (over 30) on summary judgment. I also litigated a case on behalf of a news media coalition against the Florida Department of Children and Families over access to records relating to a child who died from severe abuse. DCF fought us every step of the way. We ultimately prevailed on the merits and obtained a fee award of $376,000.

Another moment that sticks out is when I had to defend a reporter who was served a police investigative subpoena. We went into the interrogation room together. It was a classic tiny sweat-box set up, and they were doing a good cop/bad cop routine. I asserted the reporter’s privilege for most questions and one detective was getting extremely frustrated. I was waiting to be arrested myself for obstruction. They blew out of the room and made us wait alone for about another 20 minutes. Then they just let us go. Finally, I recently obtained a dismissal in a defamation case where the pro se Plaintiff is claiming TWO TRILLION dollars in damages. So I suppose I cannot ignore my “bet the universe” litigation win.

4. What books are on your to read list?

You mean that stack on my nightstand that is now its own piece of furniture?  I just finished a great adventure book called the The Emerald Mile. It details the history of navigating the Colorado river through canyon country, and a speed run that took place in the 1980s after a record-breaking snowmelt resulted in massive amounts of water being released from the Glen Canyon dam (which almost caused a dam failure). While at RCFP, I helped the author obtain federal records related to the dam crisis. Also in that stack is a half-read Infinite Jest and All the Pretty Horses. I also need to finish Bruce Springsteen’s autobiography, Born to Run (do better there…). I took it up because I don’t really care for his music as a whole and don’t understand the level of fandom. Two-thirds of the way in I’m no closer to enlightenment.

5. Favorite sources for news – legal or otherwise?

I read my everyday clients like my local paper the Tampa Bay Times, along with the Miami Herald. From there I am pretty equal opportunity. The New York Times is a daily stop, and then Google News for other national media. And occasionally long-form pieces in magazines like the New Yorker or The Atlantic.

6. What issue keeps you up at night?

People’s media diets. Garbage in is garbage out, and it leaves people with a warped view of the profession. I really wish the public could listen in on the pre-pub conversations we have with our clients. As we all know, journalists pore over every word/phrase and what to include in a story. They debate us. They do multiple re-drafts. All in service of being accurate and fair. The public does not appreciate the effort that goes into quality journalism.    

7. You’re having a media law themed dinner party. Which judges, lawyers, and journalists are you inviting and what will you serve?

I’ll make this very hypothetical and say at one dinner I’d like to invite a number of opposing counsel on past and present media cases. By accepting the invitation they are bound to discuss their true thoughts on the merits of the cases they have brought and what they really hope/hoped to achieve. I’ll be serving something Italian (it’s what I do best) and discovery.

For a second dinner I would host all the journalists I’ve worked with over the years who are now spread throughout the country. I would especially look forward to seeing the handful of which I have talked to weekly but have never actually met in person. They get to choose the menu.

8. What’s a book, movie, song, podcast or other form of entertainment you’ve enjoyed over the past few months?

Sound Opinions is my favorite podcast. One of my law partners also turned me on to another great podcast, A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs. It is dense. Example: the episode on Good Vibrations is about 40 minutes in before you ever hear a clip of the song (fair use!) and only after you get a detailed biography on the inventor of the theremin.    

9. What do you like to do when you’re not working – any unusual hobbies?

I don’t know if it qualifies as a hobby but my main pastime these days is watching my son play baseball and traveling around Florida on weekends for that. I do have a cafe-style Italian motorcycle that I like to take out when I can.

10 TLo is going out for karaoke night. What are you singing?

I’ll bring down the house with “Easy” by the Commodores. But maybe use the underappreciated Faith No More cover version.