I rarely watch television, but sometimes my wife will DVR several episodes of new shows hoping to get me interested and watch tv with her. Sure, I'll bite if I can watch several episodes uninterrupted and zip past the commercials and just sometimes one might captivate my interest if i can watch them all during a down time.

That happened a few days ago with the first few episodes the New Normal. I have to admit I like the few we watched. I looked the show up on the net and was surprised to see that some conservative organizations have set their sights on killing the show and a tv station in Utah refuses to air it. The main group is emboldened by their success with targeting advertisers and killing Playboy Club and JC Penny over Ellen Degeneris. They're confindent that they can pull the same shit on this show and starve it out by spooking the sponsors.

This got me thinking about something. I'm no lawyer, but I'm no stranger to corporate civil litigation. A contract is a contract. Once a network commits to an order of several episodes of a show, the show does well in the ratings, and then you have a bunch of religious yahoos pull a stunt like this, someone is going to lose a lot of money and most likely a production insurance company is going to have to eat it.

So, why doesn't anyone fight back in cases like this or similar with a civil tort? Last I recall, it's called Interference With a Contract. Once a few of these organizations get SLAPP'd, they might think twice b4 pulling shit like this again. The production company or insurance company might not win technically, but they can bleed these bastards to death financially AND go after the board of directors with individual lawsuits. This is done in the corporate world when community groups organize and ruin a hard won contract. Times have changed and playing nice or rolling over to these groups doesn't work, it just pumps them up speaking for a conservative minority. When you start hitting them in the wallet whenever they poke their upturned noses into any organized venue and cause a loss or a cancellation of an event, they might mind their own business the next time.

Just wondering why activist organizations haven't pooled resources and haven't pursued this route.