Complaint Review: Ashley Messenger NPR General Counsel Fraud Exposed

64. Defendants NPR, Flanagan, Ganz, and its senior editors and advisors were well aware of the damaging effects that this condemning article would have, not only on the Plaintiff's personal life, but also on his work as an artist and humanitarian.

NPR's legal advisor Ashley Messenger was also well aware that Flanagan's story was extremely biased, and knew that these outrageous malicious statements were no doubt questionable, and would be highly considered by most other reputable publications to be crossing the line into what would be considered defamation.

NPR and Ashley Messenger willingly allowed The Article to remain online for 11 months and counting, despite the fact that, for a period of over 3 months, there were numerous phone calls and e-mails exchanged between Messenger, the Plaintiff and the Plaintiff’s wife, explaining reckless disregard for the truth had been exercised (in addition to: negligence, unverified statements, lack of sources, bias against Plaintiff, false light, distortion of information, fabricated lies) and requesting that The Article be removed.

65. Throughout the 3 months of correspondence (from April 21st until June 28th) with NPR's legal advisor Ashley Messenger, The Plaintiff insisted that the complete and whole Article

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published by NPR was in fact defamatory and did not in any way, shape or manner depict his true character, or the type of person and artist he is, and that The Article should be removed entirely.

66. NPR’s legal team and the board of directors were well aware that Plaintiff was not “an embittered, relentless failure, charlatan, fame and infamy obsessed, focused on pulling the wool over people’s eyes ...” because of evidence Plaintiff provided, which included videos and articles. The only reasonable conclusion to the bewildering refusal to remove the defamatory Article would be that NPR "assumed" Plaintiff has no power, clout, or money and would never be able to obtain an attorney. Arrogance and pride is no justifiable excuse for Ignorance of the Law. Pro-se.

67. The defamatory Article remained and still remains on the very top searches on all search engines, over and above Plaintiff’s web-site when searching for Plaintiff’s name on the internet, which is and was responsible for loss of revenue in 2017, and has destroyed reputation and the ability to earn income in the future as well. Ashley Messenger was made aware about the seriousness of this issue, yet NPR refused to remove the story and Defendant instead repeatedly asked the Plaintiff "to specify" exactly which sentence was considered by Plaintiff to be defamatory, to which The Plaintiff stated each time "the complete and whole article."

Exhibit K. (1.) http://exhibitscase.blogspot.com/2018/03/exhibit_59.html

68. To prove Plaintiff's case, music videos, photographs, articles, letters from people attesting to

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Plaintiff and his wife Anais’ being spiritual artists and humanitarians were sent to Ashley Messenger, including a personal letter from CNN's Heros Narayanan Krishnan (whose Akshaya Trust organization thanked the Yeagers for their hand made flutes that they sent to India, to be given to the destitute and homeless mentally disabled people) and the "Wake Up People" music video, which is devoted to depicting the cruelty, suffering and injustice that exists around the world.

69. Once again, a specific video (pertinent to this case) that was sent to Ashley Messenger (and NPR board of directors) included over a dozen people who spoke on camera and vouched for Plaintiff and Plaintiff’s wife sincerity, integrity, courage, spiritual devotion, artistic mission and vision, and dedication to helping others and changing the world. The video was 1 hour and 3 minutes in length, and included artists, teachers, writers, speaking about about Plaintiff and Plaintiff’s wife and their work. Most important, the video featured two senior pastors from the Unitarian and Unity Churches from Wichita, Kansas; Tim Lytle and David Carter, who attended the film screening of the Award Winning documentary "The Film That Changed The World." All of these people vouched for Plaintiff’s true character, yet Ashley Messenger responded: "You have repeatedly asked NPR to remove the story dated March 23, 2017," ... “NPR will remove a story if it concludes that it (sic) not substantially true."

Exhibit K 2: These are 2 of the many people featured in a video (1 hour and 3 min) that was sent to legal advisor Ashley Messenger: https://vimeo.com/248201285
https://vimeo.com/248240498

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70. NPR did not want to admit their mistake to the public; their actions proved they had no remorse about destroying the reputation and life of another human being. With all evidence supporting the fact that NPR's defamatory article was in fact "substantially not true but
false" (Websters definition of “substantial”: “consisting of or relating to substance, not imaginary or illusionary, real, true, important, essential.”), Ashley Messenger and NPR refused to remove The Article, even though evidence provided what WAS real, true, important and essential. Exhibit K3

http://exhibitscase.blogspot.com/2018/03/exhibit_49.html

http://exhibitscase.blogspot.com/2018/03/exhibit_88.html

71. Messenger e-mailed Plaintiff stating: "We have always wanted to hear your
viewpoint, therefore, NPR would like to offer you the opportunity to respond to the story in a meaningful way on our site." Evidence will support this was in fact a legal tactic “trick" that NPR's legal team concocted.

72. There are serious contradictions between Messenger's statement and NPR’s actions. Defendants never "always wanted to hear Plaintiff’s viewpoint." If that were the case, Defendant Andrew Flanagan would have not written a biased story, exercising negligence and reckless disregard for the truth; Defendant would have verified his facts before making defamatory statements such as: “Billy Yeager has invested more of his time being a "trickster- booster" that

       

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he has as an artist.” If as Messenger states, NPR would have “always” wanted to hear Plaintiff’s viewpoint, Defendant would have invested what would be considered a minimal amount of time (1 hr and 40 minutes) watching the film documentary about Plaintiff, which would have allowed him to learn about the work and mission of the artist that he stated “nobody had heard of,” and obtain pertinent information and first hand knowledge, that would have helped him form his own original, ideas and opinions, rather than fabricating lies based on unverified information.

73. Had Defendants “always wanted to hear Plaintiff's viewpoint,” they would have reserved a spot for their subject to be interviewed on their "All Things Considered" radio program and consider "All Things" for fairness and accuracy before they announced to millions of people that their subject was a fraud, charlatan and huckster. Their actions proved they never wanted to hear Plaintiff’s viewpoint, and NPR’s legal team was trying to cover up a very serious violation by NPR and NPR’s journalist Andrew Flanagan.

74. Legal advisor Ashley Messenger was clearly being deceptive and dishonest when she included in an e-mail: "You may write up to 1500 words in a response that addresses what you would like the public to know about your career, your motives, your desire to change the world, that your activities have been performances, and other facts that you want to explain (as you have in your emails)."

75. Proof that Ashley Messenger is also responsible for damages and defamation as a cohort, is

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the fact that she admits in her own words Plaintiff's "desire to change the world." Messenger knew this was the truth; Messenger watched the videos and read the stories about Plaintiff. Board members (supposedly had been informed) and were also well aware of Plaintiff’s mission, knew the story was completely biased against Plaintiff, knew that the defamatory statements in the Radio Broadcast and the Article had never been verified, there was evidence that proved that these statements were false, and that The Article had been written negligently and with reckless disregard for the truth, yet NPR refused to remove the Article.

76. There is no denying these facts, and the statement written by Ashley Messenger herself, “your desire to change the world,” is in fact an admission of guilt, because she knew the truth, yet Messenger states that NPR will only remove a story if it concludes that it is not substantially true. This again is a contradiction.

77. Clearly using deceptive tactics so as to be able to cover themselves from being sued for defamation, Messenger continues (after her offer to Plaintiff: "You may write up to 1500 words in a response...”): "To be clear, NPR is not promising to publish it; we will decline to do so if we believe it would not serve our audience or might create liability. Given our communications, however, I would expect that you can articulate your highest ideals and your artistic vision in a way that would shine a light on the activities you say have been misunderstood. In that case, NPR will attach your response to the story."

This is in no way a "ripoff" to you just your opinion. Take it to a blog or Faux News since this is nothing more than pure crap.