"It's a reasonable settlement offer 1.5 million plus 500 hundred thousand severance" "Plus you sign a confidentiality agreement" "That might put a little crimp in my plant" "To pen a Tell-All-Book?" "With at least five chapters about how my Zire Motors exposé cost me my anchor desk" "Well that's the thing" "My company didn't fire him" "I know because I have the email he wrote resigning" "He quit, so why don't I just offer him 2 million dollars?" "Because it's still less than what a trial wind up costing you" "Sam Russell won't settle" "Eli won't let him" "How do you know?" "I know Eli" "Personally, I think you should reject this offer and go to trial" "If for no other reason than I don't want to take all this stuff down" "Hopefully among all that stuff there's a way to get around that email I sent" "I'm not interested in getting around it" "You didn't resign Sam, you simply formalized their defact of firing of you" "It's called constructive termination" "Basically they are arguing that demoting Sam was tantamount to firing him" "Except I didn't demote him" "My news director moved him to another time slot" "Which is exactly what we need you to say on the sand" "I don't have time to take the stand, I have a company to run" "Find the time Mr. Buckley, look" "No jury will find Baywest Media sympathetic if its own CEO can't be bothered to tell the story" "You have a compelling story." "You tried to tell the truth" "To corporate power and you ended up getting exiled to 5 am" "Went from covering neoracist to reporting about fender benders and the 101" "You're angry Sam and you have every reason to be" "But if the jury sees that anger" "We're dead" "Don't worry I won't come off angry" "Because I'm not, I'm concerned" "They banished me because of a story they thought was critical to their advertisers" "You think I am the only anchor in the country with that problem?" "I'm not doing this because I need the money" "I'm doing it because my entire career has been about bringing the truth to light" "They want to take away my anchor, that's fine" "I'll do it from the witness box" "Alright, big day tomorrow" "Get a good night sleep" "Is that what you'll be doing?" "No I'll be writing Boudoir questions and an opening statement" "And, drinking a lot of coffee" "Eli" "Will you excuse me for a moment?" "I think I'm about to cameo in my own shorts and sandals movie" "I heard you had your eccentricities but this isn't exactly making me swell of confidence" "Don' worry." "I won't bill you for the time" "That reputation you got for eccentricity might be a little understated" "Don't tell me." "You want me to start looking into circus related workman cups claims" "No!" "Just find out what gladiators or ancient Rome or" "Latin maybe that have to do with the Russell case" "Oh!" "Should that'll be cinch, a --- so you numb score" "Do you want me to call Dr. Chen for you?" "No" "Why not?" "You have the vision he inteprets it, isn't that how it works?" "When we're speaking to each other, which we're not" "Just tell me what this means to you?" "Ancient Rome, two gladiators and more gore than in An Inconvenient Truth" "It is and inconvenient truth I don't do vision voodoo" "Chen is the one you take that stuff to, it's bad enough you make me do all the paper work" "Fine" "Any luck getting those documents Maggie hightailed out of Sonoma with?" "And a good morning to you too" "It would be a good morning if we had Baywest internal memos about our client" "I mean it's not like we are going on trial today" "No, wait, we are" "I have a motion to compel locked and loaded, it should be a slam duck" "Then why isn't Maggie playing by the rules?" "I have no idea" "Maggie is usually very big with the rules" "So you don't know what's gotten into her?" "Off the top of your head do you foresee gladiators having any significance to our case?" "Don't you have an acupuncturist entertainer for this sort of thing?" "I'm not speaking to him" "What about your brother?" "Nate neither" "Well you should, if you don't want to talk to your acupuncturist fine" "But you should always talk to family" "Good morning Eli, Taylor" "Good morning" "I just uh..." "I just need a muffin" "Uh... there are no muffins" "Sir" "Oh, well then..." "I'll just, uh..." "It's fine, I was just leaving anyway" "Everything OK?" "Just a little family's fray, we'll be fine" "OK" "Well, I'm here should you feel a need to..." "Much as I appreciate you offer to be my personal Dr. Feld, Eli" "By now what you should be worrying about is your case" "Yes of course" "What happened to you have to talk to family?" "I meant you and your family" "My circumstances are different" "Different how?" "Hey sweetie!" "Ready for trial?" "Ready for documents" "Theft of evidence is a felony" "And refusal to produce it to opposing counsel is an ethics violation" "Right, cause you really want to lecture me on ethics here" "What he's done to her to piss her off?" "I have no idea but she's the one who offscounded with our documents" "Well, technically they're my documents" "Actually not even technically, they belong to my client" "Which your client is required to let me see" "Obviously it's no secret that you're sleeping with the enemy, huh?" "No the secret is I made a baby with her" "Mmm, you think?" "Oh, right" "Which reminds me to remind you that we've got a 3D ultrasound tomorrow, 2.30 sharp" "You know on 3D I'm gonna be able to tell the gender" "We agreed to wait!" "And besides, whatever it has it's going to be about milimeter big" "Not if it takes after its daddy" "Leaving Sonoma without saying goodbye it was one thing" "Not returning my calls that's another" "And I get all that" "I'm so very glad" "Things are awkward between us, it's uncomfortable because of..." "Is that american sign language for sleeping together?" "My point is, freezing me out that's one thing but withholding evidence?" "That's totally something else" "There are other people involved here" "Right, my clients" "And they have an attorney willing to fight to protect their interests" "Look, bottomline I'll show you those files over my dead body or when a judge orders me too" "Whichever comes first" "Then let's go see the judge and we'll table the dead thing for later" "Let's!" "This is ridiculous, the documents we've requested are totally relevant" "But Ms. Dekker has refused to comply with three document requests and a motion to compel" "That's true Your Honor" "Then why haven't you produced the documents as requested, Ms. Dekker?" "Oh, I'm sorry, I meant it's true I haven't complied with Mr. Stone's discovery request" "But that's because there's nothing in them that requires me to give him the documents" "Yes there is, it's called the rules of civil procedure" "If we actually had produced the documents you'd have seen that Jennifer Cantino" "West Media's inhouse counsel was copied on every single one of them" "Which means they're privileged, which means we have no obligation to let Mr. Stone or anyone else see them" "You can't retroactively make something privilege by CCing counsel after the fact" "There's nothing retroactive about it" "All the documents were dated before Sam Russell got moved to 5 AM" "Which is the event Mr. Stone claims was tantamount to firing Mr. Russell" "Your Honor" "She's got you Mr. Stone" "She doesn't have me" "No kidding" "And that the attorney client privilege is not a..." "Mr. Stone, unless you can prove Ms. Cantino is not an attorney, not West Media's attorney" "Or that the memos were written to her after Russell got fired or quit" "She's got you" "So, any other pre-trial motions?" "I have one Your Honor" "I move to disqualify Mr. Stone" "You what?" "On what grounds?" "He thinks he's a prophet" "Several months ago, Mr. Stone stood in your courtroom and told you he received messages from the Almighty" "I believe my exact words were Higher Power, perhaps Divine" "And last year he predicted the Silver Terrace earthquake to some public notoriety" "Which actually supports the idea that I could be, you know, special" "Which is an unfair advantage in a jury trial" "What juror wouldn't be swayed by the fact that the plaintiff's counsel has God as one of his clients" "She's right" "She is?" "In so far as the personal details of the trial attorneys, may prejudice the jury" "Your Honor" "So we should make sure that they don't find out that Ms. Dekker and I slept together last week" "That is totally inapropriate" "You dog!" "I knew it was just a matter of time" "So if you think of it she's also sleeping with opposing counsel" "That's irrelevant!" "And now she's carrying his unborn child" "And did I mentioned that Mrs. Wethersby and I used to be engaged?" "So basically what you're saying is I'm the only person in this room who's not having sex with one of you?" "And that Ms. Dekker's motion might be motivated more by personal issues than legal ones" "You wish" "Enough!" "Save it for your inevitable reality show" "If Mr. Stone does work for God, I'm not gonna chance damnation by disqualifying him" "But if I hear any of you utter one more word about prophets, prophecies or specially who's sleeping with whom" "I will hold you in contempt, I swear... to Mr. Stone's boss" "I've worked at KNIB for twelve years." "Until recently we have a number one news show in San Francisco" "We did about an 18 share" "What about around the time you offered Mr. Russell the morning show" "We were down to an 11.3" "We were hemorraging viewers and rank third among the affiliates" "So you fired him" "No..." "I offered him the morning news" "It's a less competitive time slot" "Frankly, I thought Sam would be grateful" "Thank you" "You uh... offered Sam the morning news" "The day after you killed one of his stories" "An expose on unsafe working conditions at a local Zire Motors plant" "I didn't kill anything" "We'll get to that" "What relationship, if any, does KNIB have with Zire Motors?" "Zire's one of our advertisers" "Nearly every major auto manufacturer is" "But Zire is your station's third largest advertiser" "How upset would you say Zire was with Mr. Russell's expose, scale it 1 to 10" "I wouldn't know" "But you pulled the piece anyway just in case" "I didn't pull it." "It got bumped by stories I deemed more important" "What was the more important piece you had that night?" "I don't recall" "I had a feeling you wouldn't so I looked it up" "Uh, you replaced the Zire Motors report with a public safety story" "Bilingual bandit strikes the bay area" "We felt it was the more compelling story" "I've never been held up in two languages so I'll take your word for it" "Why didn't you air the Zire Motors' report the next night?" "Did the bilingual bandit strike again?" "No, but news cycles are getting shorter and shorter We can't stay competitive with cable and internet" "By airing yesterday's news" "Oh I forgot, hazardous working conditions are so last year" "Alright for Russell I think we should send in the Magster after what she did to Stone yesterday" "I can't afford not to use a little pitbull" "Plus the jury eats her innocent act right up" "You know I'm sitting right here, don't you?" "Sorry, I should take this" "Hi sweetie" "Yeah take all the time you want, it's not like we're in trial here or anything" "Look, I can't find my keys, I'm gonna be late, alright?" "Uh, and tell the nurse when you get there if she can sign us in" "Listen, we uh... have a strategy meeting" "Well so do I!" "But I'm not going!" "I mean we only get to see our fetus in 3D once!" "I thought you were excited about this!" "I am, it's just a bad time, I don't think I should leave" "Listen, I am really, really sorry" "I just can't make it today" "I'm one of two lawyers on our side" "You've enough to feel the baseball team but somehow I can make it, you know, because it's important to me" "It's important to me too." "I have to triage, I can't move this meeting but you can get the nurse to burn me a DVD" "Right, I forgot how babies can me time-shifted" "The media has changed." "The news division used to be a public service" "Something to broadcast your deed in exchange for using the public airwaves" "Now it's just another way to make a buck" "Objection!" "She's about to point out how that doesn't seem related to you leaving the station" "It's related" "Because news has become a profit center" "And I threatened the station's profits" "With the Zire Motors' piece?" "I was demoted to 5 AM drive time time one day after they killed that story, so..." "You tell me Mr. Stone" "What's a cue score?" "It's a way of measuring an on-air personality's familiarity and appeal" "But it surprised you to learn that your cue score has been in decline for the past two years?" "I'm assuming since you're probably not less familiar to people it was because you became less appealing" "Objection!" "Woah, I'll..." "I'll put it another way" "What's more likely?" "A conspiracy to keep Sam Russell away from an anchor desk..." "Or a desire to replace him with someone who can pull in a larger audience?" "You made my point for me, Ms. Dekker" "In the days of Cronkite and Muro" "Decisions were not made based on cue scores and sharepoints" "You're right, Muro's show was cancelled because it lost its sponsor" "It's like she went back to law school when I wasn't paying attention" "Don't underestimate the ambition of a woman scorned" "What does that mean?" "Are you kidding?" "Oh, you think she's out to get me because I..." "Got her!" "Yeah you motivated her to beat you in ways that go way beyond the normal courtroom asswipping" "So all last year, I was trying to figure out how to make her a better lawyer and the whole time I should've just slept with her" "My loyal fit soldiers" "How did it go today?" "Just great" " Not great" "She's right, somewhere between great and not so much" "Sam's testimony wasn't exactly the grand slam we were counting on" "That's uh... unfortunate" "You make unfortunate sound so much worse than unfortunate" "It's nothing, something we can discuss after the trial" "Sir, we're partners." "I'm not sure keeping secrets is gonna do either one of us any good" "I didn't want to say anything to either of you" "We're already... operating under enough pressure" "What's wrong?" "I just got off the phone with our accountants" "We were treading water before the financial crisis made getting a line of credit difficult" "What are you saying?" "That if we don't win the Russell case, and win big" "We'll be joining Mr. Russell on the unemployment line" "Matt!" "Hi!" "I might still be sleeping but I'm pretty sure you didn't stay here last night" "I let my self in." "Hope you don't mind, I wanted to surprise you" "With bluberry pancakes?" "Yeah" "It's an incredibly good smelling apology" "Tastes even better" "I am sorry" "I wanted to be there, I should've been there, I just felt weird bailing out of my team, you know?" "In the middle of the world series I get it" "They're the Yankees and I'm playing for the Red Sox" "Well, not exactly because the Yankees and the Red Sox had never played each other in the World Series, but..." "Anyway, it's just a trial" "Yeah" "You do know your client is not facing the death penalty here, right?" "Not my client, my firm" "You can't use this, OK?" "This is boyfriend-girlfriend confidence, OK?" "Two-people-who-made-a-baby-together privilege" "I must have missed that class in lawschool" "What's going on?" "The new firm is sinking" "We are in massive debt... we can't get credit" "We need an infusion of cash and the only way we can do that is a huge win in the Russell case" "AKA a miracle" "Jeez!" "Are you OK?" "You mean aside from being pregnant and about to being unemployed?" "Yeah" "I'm so sorry" "Look, I wasn't gonna mention this but since you're kind of opening the door here" "P and K has an opening for family lawyer" "When Wethersby Stone goes down" "If it goes down" "There are about a hundred other firms I could work at that" "Don't employ the father of my baby" "But they probably won't hire you in your current condition" "Which would be sexist and detestable" "Posner and Klein is just detestable" "No, I'd rather be stay-at-home mom" "Hey, I work for that detestable firm, remember?" "Yeah, I know." "I spend most days trying to forget that" "It's an impossible situation" "When the internet and 24/7 cable news started" "The recession and credits anomies threatening to finish" "Hard choices have to be made if evening news of any strive is gonna survive" "Including pandering to advertisers?" "Neither Baywest nor its affiliates have ever pandered to anyone" "Including Zire Motors" "Which paid Baywest Media 3 million dollars last year alone" "In ad revenue" "Which buys the right to advertise not editorialize" "So Sam Russell's contemption that the evening news is driven by corporate interest" "Is offensive" "And completely unfounded" "What about moving him to the 5 AM traffic and weather slot?" "One of the hard choices I letted to earlier" "But evening news ratings have gone up 5 points since, so it's not one I regret" "It must have been difficult for you to find a worthy replacement" "For three-time Dupont, two-time Peabody award winning journalist Sam Russell?" "It's been a challenge but we have a great deal of confidence in Kimberly Chaves" "I've seen a few of her segments, I can see why" "Cardiff fainted from toxic chemicals during a sunless spray tan session because the spray guns tubes weren't properly cleaned" "But Ashley didn't let that stop her from attending her son's and daughter's foundation benefit" "At the San Francisco Zoo" "Well, I know I'm gonna cancel my spray tan appointment this afternoon" "All local affiliates fill their lineup with some fluff pieces." "It's not that hard to find them" "No, but what is becoming increasingly hard to find at your news station is any real news" "What's considered real news is a matter of opinion" "You're right." "Let's use a clear standard" "How many investigated reports has Kimberly Chaves done on your corporate sponsors since replacing Sam Russell?" "Off the top of my head I..." "I don't remember" "That's surprising since zero is a pretty easy number to remember" "You also probably don't remember what the top story was on your competitors'" "Programs the night Kimberly aired her hard-hitting spraytan expose" "It was a story about how your parent company CEO was indicted for stock fraude" "You were brilliant!" "Thank you!" "You totally supported the emerging theory that if I sleep with someone it endows them their superior courtroom skills" "I think I'm beginning to understand the problem you have with women" "Ciao, Bella!" "Excuse me!" "Is this uh..." "Am I in Rome?" "Che si, Roma, Roma!" " Italian " "Maggie... hey!" "Eli" "What are you...?" "So what was that about?" "Another vision?" "Rome again." "Modern day this time... and Maggie was there and I couldn't get to her" "Maybe because you already did back in Sonoma" "Hmm..." "OK..." "Shouldn't have slept with her but , there was wine and I've been dealing with some stuff" "And you love her" "OK, maybe it's not love yet but it's something" "Yeah, it's called platonic affection" "What?" "Eli, why are you the only person who doesn't seem to be aware that you feel something for Maggie?" "OK, maybe it's not love but it's definitely not platonic affection" "You two belong together" "It's obvious to everybody else except you" "OK... maybe... what if Maggie was just available" "I've been feeling very alone lately" "You know?" "Like there's, there's no one for the guy with the divine calling" "I think there is, Eli." "I think she's been right in front of you the entire time, you just haven't seen it" "It's like the aneurism woke up every part of you" "Except your heart" "So what do I do?" "Talk to her" "Can we talk?" "All rise!" "Apparently not!" "Be seated" "Alright" "Next witness" "The defense calls Jesse Bates" "Uh, Your Honor, Jesse Bates is not on their witness list" "I listed three former KNIB employees as John Doe witnesses" "Ms. Bates was a producer at NIB for thirteen years" "Your Honor" "Overruled counsel" "I'll give you more time to prepare if you want" "You're here under supina, aren't you Ms. Bates?" "Yes, I enjoyed the Sheriff's visit to my home very much, thank you" "Seek to treat as hostile" "Granted" "Did you produce Sam Russell's piece on Zire Motors?" "Yes" "So you would be in a position to know whether that piece had any relationship" "To the decision to move Mr. Russell to the morning show" "I really don't know" "Let's guess then" "The news director Mr. Church moved Sam the next day" "But didn't Mr. Church proposed to Sam a move to the morning show a full six months earlier?" "Before the Zire piece was even investigated?" "Is there a point here?" "Well only that if Sam Russell really believed that being moved to 5 AM was the same as getting fired..." "He would've stopped showing up for work six months earlier" "But he didn't, did he?" "You're not an attorney, so you probably don't know why this would be important" "But you know what would've been helpful?" "Knowing that the thing that we rested your entire case on" "The idea that moving you to 5 AM was as good as firing you" "Was discussed the good six months before you quit!" "Being discussed is a little different than being done" "Semantics!" "Lawyers and judges and apparently news anchors care about them" "But you jurists don't" "To them it looks like you quit!" "Which is a little detrimental to our client that you got fired" "Right, I forgot." "A jury is just 12 people too stupid to get out of jury duty, incapable of parsing distinctions" "Incapable of thinking for themselves." "You know what you sound like Eli?" "A trial attorney trying to win" "Baywest Media: sorry Sam that story is just gonna go right over the public's head" "Sorry Sam, but they're just not going to understand that, sorry Sam it's just too darn confusing Sam" "I have a theory... you could say I'd bet my whole career on it" "I think people are only as dumb as we treat them" "I think people only act like morons if they're treated like morons" "What do you think?" "I think Taylor and I have a long night ahead of us" "I'll let you get to it then" "They could hear you on the first floor" "I would tell you that berating clients is bad for business but that would imply we have any business" "Sorry, we had a set back" "Oh... maybe I can help brainstorm a solution" "Perhaps, bring in a fresh perspective" "We're fine - we're great" "Right" "Of course" "Don't worry, we'll find a rabbit to pull here" "Mmhh... a little more of that artic wind and the polar bears might have a home again" "I don't want to talk about it, OK?" "What could be so bad for you to treat him like that when his firm is about three inches from belly up?" "How about chasing my mother out of town and lying to me about it for 20 years?" "OK, that's bad enough" "I'm so sorry, are you OK?" "I fluctuate." "Luckily I've got Matt to take it out on" "I guess you're right to be angry" "I recently found out that someone was responsible for my dad's death" "It's been little hard to get over" "Why do I sense a but coming on?" "But, more than anyone I know, Jordan's been trying to change who he was" "I'm afraid it's too little too late comes to mind" "You know, if he'd just had told me all this years ago" "When I still needed a mother, I would've been furious but at least there would've been time to fix things, you know?" "And now..." "My mother..." "lives a thousand miles away" "It's been decades..." "I think the window of oportunity has closed" "The window of oportunity" "Care to run that by me again?" "Happily Your Honor, the other day you ruled that we couldn't review the Baywest documents that we requested because" "They were protected by attorney-client privilege" "Because they are" "Because you said that all the documents were dated before Sam Russell was moved to 5 AM" "But yesterday Ms. Bates altered that timeline" "Now it's obvious that the documents were written after the 5 AM move was proposed" "We really should be thanking you actually" "The documents were still copied to in-house counsel" "After apparently the wheels were put in motion" "Ms. Wethersby was right when she said you can't retroactively make something privilege" "Make sure those documents are delivered to Wethersby Stone and Associates by end of business today" "Now get out of here" "This is huge!" "Easy Taylor, we don't know if there's anything in there that's going to help us" "If there wasn't Maggie would've just produced them if for no other reason than to waste our time reviewing them" "Posner and Klein just delivered your documents" "That was fast" "I know..." "I thought it would take them forever just to unload the truck" "Unload the truck?" "How many documents could there be?" "What was that you said about wasting our time?" "I can't believe you would do this!" "Let me guess!" "You got the boxes" "The judge ordered you to produce those documents" "Which we did" "No, you hid them in a ton of crap!" "Well that's one interpretation" "And that's just more crap, you know?" "Is this how your new firm does business Matt?" "Is this how you do business?" "We're in trial Taylor, it's just tactics" "Circumventing a court order to hide evidence isn't a tactic, it's illegal" "And as morally ambiguous as you pretend to be there was a time you knew the difference" "OK, that's fair." "I'll own that" "But?" "But, and I wouldn't be floating this if I weren't safely eight cityblocks away," "This anger's a bit of an overreaction" "Is it possible some of it's debt related?" "Yes, it is debt related you know what?" "It's related to the kind of dad you're going to be" "Which is related to the kind of person you are" "That's not fair" "I don't think you've got much credibility right now when it comes to fairness, Matt" "What are we even looking for, Eli?" "The box that says seek which smoking gun document in here?" "It'd be nice if they were that obvious about it" "We need some kind of system and some more manpower, perhaps hire some temps" "I don't think that's gonna be necessary" "This is the one" "Do you recall writing an email to Ryan Church?" "He's the news director of one of my affiliates." "I recall writing hundreds of emails to him" "How about this one?" "If you could... read it aloud, please" "Church, heard about Russell's autoplant story, needless to say Zire is not throwing him a parade" "Take care of the problem, DB" "I guess since Zire motors only purchased the right to advertise not editorialize" "You just threw in the problem solving for free" "Mr. Buckley, can you read the portion of this email where you specifically asked Mr. Church to fire Mr. Russell?" "No, because I never did" "So what was the problem with Zire Motors that you wanted Mr. Church to fix?" "If it would help I could have the judge remind you what the penalties are for perjury" "The problem was Sam" "What about him?" "Specifically" "Zire wanted assurance Sam wouldn't keep pushing his story" "I guess Sam wouldn't have much of a reason to for the 5 AM traffic report, huh?" "Eli, don't let your window close" "What?" "Do you think it's open now?" "She can't be too happy with me after what I did back in there" "Which is why you need to do this now before she's gotten too much scar tissue over her wounds" "You know I slept with her, right?" "I didn't hit her with a baseball bat" "Go!" "Come on!" "Hey!" "Come here" "Aooh!" "My wrist is fine thanks!" "Sorry but... we have to talk" "No, you want to talk, a slight distinction" "Yeah, right!" "I want to talk" "So, all you got to do is listen" "OK?" "Firstly, I'm..." "Look I'm sorry about Sonoma..." "I just..." "What we did... it was... it was wonderful." "It was great" "And I'm glad we did it" "On the next morning I just..." "I had to think about my feelings" "Specially in light of your feelings which you told me... are substantial" "Were... substantial" "What?" "I tried... every conceivable way to get over you" "I got engaged..." "I left the firm" "Never in a million years would I think that sleeping together would actually... help me get over you" "So thank you" "You gave me closure" "So why have you been so um... why things have been so personal... with the case" "No, it's not personal!" "I'm trying to win Eli" "I can't beat you and be friends with you at the same time." "I can't multitask like that" "But after I beat you we can go for coffee" "Catch up" "Yeah... best friends" "Yeah... exactly" "In a minute, Baywest's lawyer is gonna stand here and she's going to remind you how Sam Russell quit his job" "But the reality is you cannot quit a job that's already been taken away from you" "Sam Russell was removed from his job anchoring the Bay area evening news" "That's indisputable" "It's uncontested" "But the fact is that Sam lost his job much earlier than that" "He's been loosing it bit by little bit for years" "When the news division at Baywest Media became part of the entertainment division" "When the wall between the boardroom and the newsroom grew so thin as to become nonexistent" "And when television journalism became just something else to fill time between commercials" "And yes, when his corporate bosses decided that if they couldn't shut him up then they would force him out" "And they did" "Sam Russell has been silenced" "And now the only one who can tell Baywest Media that the media needs to start living up to its responsibilities is you" "You know?" "He's absolutely right" "The news media has lost its moral center" "It's become dominated by corporate interest" "Kitty Kirk went on record saying that she felt corporate pressure to cast the Iraq war in a positive light" "Even President Bush's fore press secretary ironically refers to the liberal media because it's become so focused" "On advancing Republican policies which benefit, guess who?" "Corporations" "The journalistic spirit that Andy McCarthyism at exposed Watergate has been co-opted into making the case for WMD's in Iraq" "And ignoring calamity in New Orleans" "And that's when he's not peoccupied by Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears" "And when you consider how critical a free press is in a democracy like ours" "It's particularly loadsome" "But you want to know what's really loadsome?" "Trying to convert your justifiable outrage into a personal financial windfall" "If Sam Russell were really that concerned about the state of the media he wouldn't have quit" "He would've stayed on and worked to change the system from the inside" "Rather than running to you for a handout" "It could go either way" "Then it won't inconvenience them to go our way" "Even if they rule for us, for Sam, there's little guarantee of the money judgement sufficient to keep our lights on" "Thank you Mr. Optimist!" "I'm just being truthful." "Let alone those lines, you two made me very proud" "I couldn't fathom two attorneys I'd rather practice with" "So you'll be retiring then?" "Hello?" "You want me to... why?" "OK" "Um..." "I'll be back in a moment" "OK, I'm not gonna bother telling you how weird this is" "I have a settlement offer" "Which you felt the need to make in a closet?" "Does the offer involves us making out cause, no ofense, but I just..." "It's quite possible the rest of my team doesn't know about this offer, but my client does" "And he's willing to pay Sam 5 million dollars" "Does Sam have to make out with you?" "This is serious" "It's a public perception thing." "Sam still got a few fans 5 million dollars buys an end to this settlement and a public statement saying he resigned" "Sam's gonna have a problem with that" "Not as big a problem as you've got" "One third contingency on 5 million dollars is Wethersby Stone's life route" "Ok?" "Don't go and tell like a minute after I'm out the door" "Of course" "Should I even consider this?" "It's a lot of money" "Enough to start over" "Put all this behind you" "But I want them to admit that what they did was wrong, not just wrong but disrespectful" "Mercenary terpretude" "Sorry Sam but... that kind of admission just doesn't happen in the real world" "Certainly not in the world of corporate America" "Yes, they might take a hit from the jury but they also might not" "At least this way you're guarantedd something" "And after they pay you 5 million dollars" "Baywest is gonna think twice about trying to silence another reporter" "I see your point" "So you'll take it?" "Do I have a choice?" "Of course you have a choice" "Sam, you were wronged." "The station forced you out, we all know that and by allowing them to get away with it" "We are allowing corporate greed to roll over journalistic ethics" "To --- the first amendment, you need to stand up for what is right" "But there is a cost to that" "Yes, to your conscience" "Sleepless nights and anxious mornings when the reality of your mistakes" "Plague you the most when you realize that you've compromised your principles" "That you've done the wrong thing" "Believe me when I tell you living with regret is much harder than living with defeat" "You've come this far, if you settle now I'm afraid you'll lose something far worse than a trial" "He's right" "I know it" "No deal" "I'll go tell Matt" "Maggie!" "Ciao mia bella ragazza" "Ciao" "We the jury in the matter of Samuel Russell vs. Baywest Media Incorporated" "Find in favor of" "The defendant" "Congratulations!" "Not only is there a nice paycheck in it for us but we got to nail Wethersby Stone and Associates" "Where really hurts: their wallets" "And I would specially like to thank Maggie Dekker" "For her sweet voice and placid demeanor bely her inner animal" "She was a panther out there people" "Alright, unless you can figure out a client to bill for eating cupcakes get back to work" "Dowd... a word" "Actually its uh, two words" "Never again" "You know what I'm referring to?" "I'm pretty sure I've got an idea" "You're lucky they turned down that offer" "And you're lucky our client won" "Now I don't see you getting lucky three times in a row" "Do you?" "You were bit over your word limit there" "What are we gonna do?" "Well, there's still some paintings I can sell" "Some bills we can defer payment on" "They would buy us six months... maybe a little less" "You're not alone in this dad" "Why are you smiling?" "Just nice to hear you call me dad" "Hey!" "Matt" "What are you doing here?" "I heard Keith's got my old office" "That's just an unacceptable situation" "And so is Posner and Klein" "At least that's what it's turned out to be" "So you're..." "Well you're always going on about how your dad says this place is about uh... making up for past mistakes" "I though I'd give that a try" "Not to rain on your parade but..." "has anyone actually offered you a job here?" "How would you like to have a job here?" "Not to sound ungrateful but we can't even afford to pay you minimum wage" "Oh no, take Stone's name off the door and we'll call it even" "Nice try" "Um... you were right..." "I wanna show the little Dowd or..." "Dowdette, what means to stand up for the things she care about" "She's gonna be very lucky to have you as a dad" "She?" "I couldn't help it when I went to the doctor the other day" "I just..." "I had to know" "I hope you're not mad" "No..." "I'm not mad!" "I'm having a girl, are you kidding me?" "Uh, yeah... if you just call up to her office, she'll let me in." "It's Maggie Dekker." "Two k's" "You're looking for Maggie?" "You just missed her, she's probably outside" "Thank you!" "Maggie!" "Mag..." "Here..." "I think um..." "I think my window closed"