As you know, Kelly Rutherford is running scared but she’s still making truly asinine, self-destructive choices in her custody battle. Many outlets are covering this story as Kelly presents it: like she’s a loving mother whose kids got taken from her by an evil court system and were sent to live in a terrible foreign country. Kelly has made so many false moves over the years that she’s brought this on herself. Still there are outlets willing to cover Kelly’s side as if this was a miscarriage of justice. Among those are ABC, MSNBC and People Magazine.
A People and Daily Beast writer, Dana Kennedy, was on MSNBC this weekend, where she touted Kelly’s side and made a bunch of veiled accusations against Kelly’s ex husband. During that interview, Kennedy claimed that Kelly’s story would get the cover of People this weekend (or she agreed that it deserved the cover, it’s hard to tell), but the new cover came out and it went to The Duggars. Kelly only got a sidebar. Did People do their homework and realize that their readers are not on Kelly’s side? They’re not on the Duggars’ side either. Here’s what Kennedy said on MSNBC. She repeated Kelly’s claim that “there’s no hard evidence… that Daniel Giersch cannot enter the US” and otherwise parroted Kelly’s talking points. Here’s what she said about Giersch’s business though, and this was disturbing:
Dana Kennedy: We’re shamed online for being fed information from Kelly Rutherford’s camp but we can’t get anything from Daniel Giersch… I’ve actually read over 100 court documents. The more I look into this case and the more I look into this guy.. the more I go into a rabbit hole… inconsistencies, shell companies. Nothing is what it seems with this guy.
Well I happen to say that the fact that we don’t know much about him plays in his favor… the fact is that Daniel Giersch is a mysterious German businessman. He is notorious in Germany… he destroyed people’s lives by suing them over trademark litigation. A lot of small businessman have told me that they were sued for 25,000 euros here and 10,000 euros there…
When I look into the court documents on how he entered the US, which was on a work visa which is only for what Homeland security calls ‘people of extreme talent’ nothing adds up because he is kind of an Internet businessman, not that I’ve been able to find out exactly what he does for a living… it’s difficult to go on the record and say anything… because everything is so unclear.
Right now, he’s winning the media campaign. It’s like the reverse of Gone Girl. He’s kind of like the Amy Dunne in this saga. Barring anything else this should be a fantastic cover story in People.
[From MSNBC video via Mediate]
This is blatant nationalism: “mysterious German businessman.” Giersch did sue Google for the rights to the g-mail.de domain name in Germany and he won, because he had G-mail (Giersch Mail) first. He runs a tech company that puts out apps and by most accounts he’s a self-made man and an entrepreneur. Some of you pointed me to this interview he did with Kelly in LA for German TV station Spiegel TV. I understand German and I watched this with a German speaker. My friend (ok my estranged husband, who is exceedingly reasonable about custody and visitation, giving me a unique perspective on this story) said that Giersch came across like a douche. To me he sounded full of himself but fine. He’s rich and he lived in LA at the time.
Even if Giersch is a trademark and patent troll, which has been claimed before by Kennedy, this does not make him a bad father. I hate copyright trolls and concede that he may be a ruthless businessperson, but that doesn’t mean the kids aren’t better off with him. Kelly is grasping at straws and trying to smear him. I wish the media would actually look deeper into this story instead of just taking the easy “actress loses kids to shady ex” angle. That’s simply not true. Multiple judges in several jurisdictions have ruled on this case and found in Giersch’s favor. I’m glad this didn’t take the cover of People, although the Duggars are pretty despicable.
Kelly also told People why she decided to keep her kids with her in the US past their scheduled visit and against court order. She said when she had to send them back her son said “Mommy, I’m afraid” and her daughter started crying. THAT was the “really alarming” thing that she claims to have been told which prompted her to keep them. Kids cry and get scared with transitions all the time, and yet she called it “alarming” enough to kidnap them. What’s alarming to me is that there are reporters and news outlets still defending her.
You can see Kennedy’s interview on Mediate. She sounds just like Kelly and her lawyer.
photo credit: Pacific Coast News and Fame Flynet
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