E-mails Reveal MPAA Planned Media Campaign to Smear Google

Back in December last year, we brought you a story revealing that Google had filed a lawsuit against the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and Mississippi State Attorney General Jim Hood, with whom it is alleged the MPAA has a more than cosy relationship with. The lawsuit accuses Hood of working with the MPAA, the banner under which major Hollywood studios operate, to launch a secret campaign to attack Google. The campaign, which was codenamed Goliath, was discovered thanks to leaked documents from last year’s Sony Pictures hack.

Since the lawsuit was filed, Hollywood studios have resisted Google’s subpoenas regarding their relationship with Hood, who is accused of investigating Google at the behest of the MPAA, denying the company its First Amendment rights in the process. Some of the materials Google has managed to lay its hands on through the filing, however, have uncovered the shocking revelation that Hood and the MPAA were conspiring to use Hollywood’s media arms, including popular morning television show The Today Show and the Wall Street Journal newspaper, to publicly smear Google in its effort to undermine the internet giant. The e-mails were revealed during a new filing on Thursday (23rd July).

A segment from an incriminating e-mail reads:

Media: We want to make sure that the media is at the NAAG meeting. We propose working with MPAA (Vans), Comcast, and NewsCorp (Bill Guidera) to see aboutworking with a PR firm to create an attack on Google (and others who are resisting AG efforts to address online piracy). This PR firm can be funded through a nonprofit dedicated to IP issues. The “live buys” should be available for the media to see, followed by a segment the next day on the Today Show (David green can help with this). After the Today Show segment, you want to have a large investor of Google (George can help us determine that) come forward and say that Google needs to change its behavior/demand reform. Next, you want NewsCorp to develop and place an editorial in the WSJ emphasizing that Google’s stock will lose value in the face of a sustained attack by AGs and noting some of the possible causes of action we have developed.

Not only does the e-mail reveal a covert and coordinated media attack on Google, but flat-out admits that the Google-bashing inflammatory content pushed through The Today Show and the WSJ would be developed by the MPAA. Beyond the MPAA’s insidious Goliath campaign, this disclosure calls into question all editorial content within The Today Show, the Wall Street Journal, and any and all media outlets owned or run by major Hollywood studios.

Thank you TechDirt for providing us with this information.

Image courtesy of Variety.