Diane Dimond Rears Ugly Head – MJEOL Bullet #16 UPDATE #2

[b]Diane Dimond Rears Ugly Head – MJEOL Bullet #16 UPDATE #2[/b] Diane Dimond, former tabloid tv-reporter for Hard Copy, came from under her rock tonight (Nov 12, 2003) to do an interview with CNN’s Paula Zahn in relation to the new case against Anthony Pellicano. Pellicano is currently in deep trouble for alleged wiretapping without any of his clients knowing about it. Pellicano has previously released audio tapes of Evan Chandler planning to ‘ruin’ Michael Jackson if he didn’t get what he wanted. Using this opportunity to get a little face time for herself, Dimond talked about, what else, the 10 year old Michael Jackson scandal. She says that Pellicano was tapping her phone in relation to the 93 scandal. She claims that she is the one that broke the story of the allegations. And for that reason, she alleges that some of her sources were intimidated and run off the road, and that her personal property was broken into. Given her penchant for dispersing lies, I wouldn’t believe that until I see evidence of it. If you remember, Diane Dimond, Hard Copy, and tabloid leech Victor Gutierrez, were sued by Jackson for $100 million (US) because Dimond reported–as if it were fact–that Victor Gutierrez saw a video tape of Jackson in a ‘compromising position’ with a child. That, of course, turned out to be a complete lie. Contrary to what Diamond said on the Paula Zahn show, she did not ‘win’ that particular lawsuit. It was reported that Diamond had to file for bankruptcy in relation to the suit. Jackson did, however, win his lawsuit against her source, Gutierrez, and filed an appeal to go after Dimond for defamation of character. (He was unsuccessful in getting Paramount and Hard Copy back into the $100 million lawsuit in a later appeal.) Gutierrez, rather than pay Jackson, fled the country and hasn’t been back since. I wish he would have taken her with him. Thus, she personally may not have been held liable, but her source–the reason Jackson sued her in the first place–was lying and did lose in court against Jackson. In the filed court document at that time, which will be posted at MJEOL shortly, Dimond spread the false story around as if it were fact–expressing doubt privately, but pushing the story publicly for ratings. She depended on her tabloid source (Gutierrez) without fully checking out the story. Here’s a snip from the filed appeals lawsuit in court: [quote]In the present case, Dimond did more than profess her good faith. Not only did she state that she believed Gutierrez to be accurate, she backed up her statement with evidence of his reliability as a source on other stories pertaining to appellant –even some that initially seemed far-fetched[/quote] To this day, no one has come forth with any tape and no one else has confirmed that it even exists. This story, for which Dimond is inextricably linked, was concocted by a lone tabloid hack trying to ride to fame on Jackson’s back. Instead of admiting that, Dimond prefers to play fast and loose with the truth. She obviously took the bull$hit and ran with it. Then cried ‘foul’ when she had to face the consequences. It makes one wonder what Pellicano has her on tape saying (if the allegations toward Pellicano are true).