A confidential settlement has ended an eight-year battle by Ruth Shulman to force the makers of a “reality” TV program to pay for surreptitiously taping and broadcasting her rescue from a car accident.
Her invasion-of-privacy lawsuit against Group W/Westinghouse and its successor CBS Corp. was set for trial Sept. 8 here. Initially dismissed, the case’s trip through the state appellate system set precedents limiting newsgathers and led the California Supreme Court to blast the use of personal tragedy to “entertain casual viewers.”
