In April 2017, Gray Television‘s legal counsel decided to take action against two men seeking to take advantage of their humorous yet fraudulent appearance on the company’s NBC affiliate WEAU-13 in Eau Claire, Wisc., by using the footage of their live on-air antics as “Chop & Steele” for a promotional video.
On Wednesday (1/31), a settlement was reached between Gray and the defendants.
According to documents filed Jan. 31 in a New York Federal court reviewed by Law360, the founders of the website FoundFootageFest.com, Nick Prueher and Joe Pickett, cut a deal that resolves allegations that they faked their personas to get on WEAU and infringed the station’s copyrights by repurposing the footage for financial gain.
The tentative deal would put an amicable end to Gray’s quest to squelch Prueher and Pickett.
As reported by RBR+TVBR in April 2017, WEAU booked Prueher and Pickett as a “strongman duo” for a fun morning show segment. However, the appearance of Prueher and Pickett amount to a low-rent knock-off of Saturday Night Live characters Hanz and Franz.
The men were charged with fraud and copyright infringement in a New York Federal District Court.
WEAU wasn’t the only station that saw the Assignment Editor fail to vet an on-air guest.
According to the New York Post, the suit also noted a former bit in which Preuher — masquerading as “Chef Keith Guerke” — appeared on Local TV LLC‘s Fox affiliate WITI-6 in Milwaukee to promote a fake cookbook, “Leftovers Right: Making a Winner of Last Night’s Dinner.”
WITI is operated by Tribune Media.
Again, the issue here is not the fakery behind the on-air appearance, but the subsequent use of footage by Preuher and Pickett to promote their website and “brand,” Gray claims.
