REGINA — A CTV Regina news anchor has filed a defamation suit against a local newspaper over its criticism of comments he made about Central Alberta-born singer k.d. lang’s resemblance to actor Charlie Sheen.
Manfred Joehnck is suing Hullabaloo Publishing Workers Co-operative Ltd., publishers of a give-away newspaper called Prairie Dog as well as a web-based version.
The suit also names Prairie Dog editor Stephen Whitworth and writer Aidan Morgan.
The whole thing began when Joehnck and sports anchor Chris Hodges were engaging in banter during a broadcast and Joehnck suggested “the older (lang) gets, the more she looks like Charlie Sheen.”
“I didn’t mean that in a bad way,” said Joehnck, according to documents filed in superior court.
“Oh yeah, that was the most flattering way you could possibly say that she looks like a freaked-out meth-head on the downside,” responded Hodges.
“No, Charlie on a good day — not his web page days,” countered Joehnck.
The suit alleges that a short time later Morgan posted a blog in which he suggested Joehnck was “snickering over lang’s appearance and out-there sexuality,” and was mocking her for being “a woman who doesn’t fit with the beauty standards of our age.”
In the statement of claim, Joehnck’s lawyer, Tony Merchant, says Morgan wrongly assumed the exchange between the anchors was critical of lang’s sexual orientation.
She came out as a lesbian in 1992.
“In fact, Mr. Joehnck merely intended to make the humorous observation that a man, Charlie Sheen, and a woman, k.d. lang, looked very much alike,” said the suit.
The suit also contends that Morgan mischaracterized Joehnck’s comments in part because “he could not possibly have seen the telecast.”
The suit argues that Whitworth as managing editor of Prairie Dog is responsible for content published by his writers as well as comments posted online by members of the public who suggested Joehnck was homophobic.
Lang has been in the news lately because of a new album she has released; Sheen has been omnipresent in the news for months because of his firing from his sitcom Two and a Half Men, and his subsequent Torpedo of Truth tour.
The lawsuit acknowledges that Joehnck later apologized on-air for the comments.
“I make a remark about k.d. lang’s appearance which was intended to be humourous,” he said.
“It was not. It was an error in judgment for which I sincerely apologize and I want to assure you I regret any embarrassment.”
The suit notes at least one complaint about Joehnck, who was named “Best TV Anchor” by Prairie Dog readers last year, was filed with the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council.
The suits says Whitworth later posted a blog update suggesting there was no malicious intent to Joehnck’s comments, adding that filing complaints with regulatory agencies was a disproportionate response.
However, the suit argues that once such things are posted to the Internet, the alleged defamation continues to live and cause damage.
Statements of claim contain allegations not yet proven in court and no statement of defence has yet been filed.