CBS Sunday Morning produced an excellent feature story about the Gibson’s Bakery v. Oberlin College dispute.
My original review of the story was on November 3, 2019, Ted Koppel: Despite verdict, Oberlin College President still “makes allusions to a pattern of racist behavior” by Gibson’s Bakery:
One of the most disturbing aspects of the Gibson’s Bakery v. Oberlin College case has been the almost obsessive demonization of Gibson’s Bakery and its owners by the college.It started not just during the protests and pre-litigation interactions that gave rise to the lawsuit, but in the Answer filed by the defendants in response to the lawsuit….Koppel did a good job on the report, though I have some issues with it. In particular, the report tacitly buys into Oberlin College’s post-trial public relations campaign to portray this as a free speech issue, and to claim that Oberlin College unfairly was held liable for student speech and conduct. As pointed out before, that is not accurate. The Gibsons, as the jury instructions reflected, sought to hold the college liable for the speech and actions of college employees, particularly co-defendant Dean of Students Meredith Raimondo, not for the speech or conduct of students.In fairness to Koppel, at one point he did point out the involvement of college employees, particularly in handing out defamatory flyers, as an issue in the case.You should watch the entire 13-minute segment. It includes an interview with a female juror, who spoke to the impact of the testimony by David Gibson how his father, 92-year-old Allyn Gibson, feared he would die having been labeled a racist.
On August 10, 2020, I noted that the segment had been nominated for an Emmy Award, CBS News Feature About Gibson’s Bakery v. Oberlin College Nominated for Emmy Award:
David Gibson died two weeks after the CBS News story aired. He was able to see the story before he died, and was gratified that Koppel pushed back against Ambars’ comments.
The Feature won the Emmy Award in the category:
The win was posted on the Facebook page of the Gibson’s attorneys.The TV news story with a local connection and up for an Emmy Award was a winner.“What Price” produced by Ted Koppel for CBS Sunday Morning won “Outstanding Feature Story in a Newscast’ Monday night.It includes an interview with Canton attorney Lee Plakas in the Gibson’s Bakery v Oberlin College case.He successfully represented the bakery.The Gibson family is from Stark County.Plakas tells WHBC News that Lorna Gibson watched the show at her husband David’s gravesite; he died five months after the verdict was announced.
Congratulations to the team at CBS Sunday Morning for their EmmyⓇ-award-winning coverage of our client’s lawsuit against Oberlin College. Ted Koppel’s segment documenting the Gibson family’s fight to protect their business against false allegations of racism won a News & Documentary EmmyⓇ for “Outstanding Feature Story in a Newscast.” As David Gibson’s last television interview, it’s a fitting tribute to a man who fought tirelessly to preserve his family’s reputation and demonstrate that the truth still matters.
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