Unbalanced News Coverage

Lubbockonline.com Tech gets more response time in chess lawsuit MARLENA HARTZ AVALANCHE-JOURNAL Story last updated at 10:04 p.m. Saturday, November 3, 2007 This story first appeared on LubbockOnline.com at 4:29 p.m. Friday A judge has extended Texas Tech's deadline to respond to a lawsuit filed against it and the founders of its new chess institute. U.S. District Judge Denny Chin of the Southern District of New York extended the deadline to Nov. 16 about a week ago, according to a court document. A member of the Texas Attorney General's Office, Scot Graydon, requested the extension in a letter to the judge dated Oct. 26. Graydon, an assistant attorney general, intends to file a motion to have the case dismissed, he wrote in the letter. He said Friday by telephone he does not discuss his cases. Before he can file the motion, Graydon must be granted permission to practice in the Southern District of New York, his letter reads. Sam Sloan, a former U.S. Chess Federation board member, filed the lawsuit against Tech, its institute founders, Grandmaster Susan Polgar and her husband, Paul Truong, as well as 13 other defendants in early October. Sloan, 63, alleges Truong, 42, and Polgar, 38 - of Tech's Susan Polgar Institute for Chess Excellence - impersonated him on the Internet to discredit him in the last federation board election, in which they were elected and Sloan was not. He said they posted thousands of profane messages on Internet blogs in his name, beginning in 2005. Truong has denied Sloan's allegations before, but he and Polgar did not return a phone message and a page left Friday. [NOTE: This is because Polgar and Truong are in Crossville, Tennessee, attending a U.S. Chess Federation Executive Board Meeting. Since they were not in Lubbock but were either en route to or already in Crossville, they could not possibly answer a local telephone call or a local page.] The majority of defendants in the lawsuit are board members of the chess federation. Sloan said he included Tech in his lawsuit because some of the messages were posted from computers owned by the university and used by Truong or Polgar or both. [NOTE: This is an obvious "fish" for a deep pocket.] Sloan, who is representing himself in the case [NOTE: This gives you an idea of the relative merits of Mr. Sloan's case - he can't find an attorney to take it on a contingency fee basis], seeks $20 million in damages and to be reinstated on the chess board pending a new election. "I don't think (the case) is as cut and dry as (the defense) says it is," Sloan said Friday. [NOTE: No, of course he wouldn't. What would you expect the man to say. Duh!] To comment on this story: marlena.hartz@lubbockonline.com 766-8753 james.gallagher@lubbockonline.com 766-8706 ******************************************************************************** I have emailed Ms. Hartz about Mr. Truong's and Ms. Polgar's attendance at the USCF Executive Board meeting, and requested that she correct her story to reflect a more balanced view - in light of this fact.