Bill O'Reilly, Greta Van Susteren Sued for Defamation by Drum Café Teambuilding Program

Fox News personalities questioned the legitimacy of Aviva Nash's musical program last month and she is seeking damages

By Claudia Rosenbaum, Rebecca Macatee Aug 08, 2012 9:22 PMTags
Bill O'Reilly, Greta Van SusterenStephen Lovekin, Paul Morigi/Getty Images

Fox News is under fire!

Network personalities Bill O'Reilly and Greta Van Susteren are being sued for defamation by Aviva Nash, one of the primary individuals behind Drum Café LLC, an organization that teaches teamwork and motivation through group drumming. In the lawsuit obtained by E! News, Nash alleges that O'Reilly and Van Susteren "said false, defamatory, denigrating and slanderous statements [that] were spoken willfully, intentionally recklessly, and maliciously, with the intention of defaming, slandering, dishonoring, humiliating, ridiculing and damaging the good name, character and reputation of the plaintiffs herein."

On July 19, Drum Café was featured on Fox's On the Record with Greta Van Susteren. The conservative host used the words "stealing" and "insane" to describe Drum Café's $270,000 appearance at a professional Las Vegas conference. Five days later, the team building organization and corporate event company was featured on The O'Reilly Factor.  O'Reilly interviewed Juliet Huddy (a journalist for the program and also a defendant) about Nash's the Nevada appearance. O'Reilly used the word "con" to describe Drum Café's work, while Huddy referred to Nash as a "little hippy, dippy chick."

Nash's states in her lawsuit she is an "accomplished corporate team builder and not engaging in a con." According to Drum Café's website their business is "building teams, uniting companies and building staff through interactive drumming."

Nash's attorney tells E! News Drum Café has already lost business due to what Nash alleges are defamatory remarks. "They changed their mind," he says. "They were going to use Drum Café and they decided against it. My client has worked for years and years building up this business. This business has been used by Fortune 500 companies and to be referred to as a 'hippy, dippy chick' and to have her business referred to as some sort of criminal enterprise, that is pretty damaging."

Nash wants unspecified damages and court costs.

A FOX spokesperson tells E! News that they have not been served with a lawsuit, therefore, there is nothing on which to comment at this time.

-Additional reporting by Claudia Cagan