Apparently, Mike Huckabee’s robocalls promoting a Christian movie did not provide the inspiration he and the outfit that hired him expected. In fact, the calls were found to be so improper, annoying and intrusive that a federal judge just awarded $32.4 million to 3.2 million Americans who improperly received them.
From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
The calls went out to promote the “Last Ounce of Courage,” a movie about “faith, family and freedom” that opened Sept. 14, 2012. More than 3.2 million of the calls violated the [Telephone Consumer Protection Act] act by going to people who had not consented to the calls, Webber has ruled.
Ron and Dorit Golan, of St. Louis County, received two calls that went to voicemail. They are on the Do Not Call registry. They sued in 2012 and came to represent the class of call recipients.
According to The Riverfront Times, the Huckabee robocalls were not just annoying but deceptive:
The call purported to be a survey asking whether those who answered believed in certain things (freedom, liberty, etc.). But really, a group of Chesterfield lawyers contend, it was a recorded robocall — and, as ultimately became clear to anyone who stayed on the line, an advertisement for a Christian-focused film called Last Ounce of Courage.
Not only did Huckabee’s work cause a huge damage award (though it could have been larger), it did not seem to help the film much, either. More from Riverfront Times:
The film, which notched a rating of just 2.5 out of 10 on Rotten Tomatoes, tells the story of a mayor who decides he can best honor his dead son by putting the “Christ” back in City Hall. A cigar-smoking big-city lawyer from the ‘ACLO’ tries to stop him. Patriotism ensues!
Hard to imagine in light of that plotline, but even with that assist from Mike Huckabee, Last Ounce of Courage flopped hard.
Huckabee was long ago dismissed from the suit. Whether or not the plaintiffs will collect anything close to the damages awarded is in doubt.
(H/T Raw Story)
Crossposted at News Hounds.
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