Sex and the Single Mouse

Ogden certainly doesn't view Zappolo's departure (the settlement involved no exchange of cash by either side) as a death knell for the clause. According to him, "We think there's a place for a reasonable no-compete to protect the investment we make in individuals. We have them in our contracts and intend to enforce them."

That's no surprise to Zappolo. The TV-industry grapevine has been buzzing for months with stories about his frustrating negotiations with Channel 9, and while he shoots down many of them (he says he was auditioning for Fox in Los Angeles on the January day gossips claimed he cleaned out his desk and stormed off), he concedes the talks were "difficult." With everything now resolved, he praises Ogden for being "gracious" enough to work things out. But that doesn't mean he has a newfound respect for no-compete clauses.

Susan Goldstein

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"I understand why TV stations like them," he says. "They put a lot of time and effort into promotion and marketing, so they don't want to see people jumping from station to station. But on the other hand, there's got to be some kind of free enterprise for people, and if you work through your contract, you ought to have a chance to better yourself."

Despite such beliefs, Zappolo does have a no-compete clause in his contract with Fox. But, he says pointedly, "it's a very short one."

How complete should disclosure be? In the February 28 Post, TV critic Joanne Ostrow ballyhooed a Channel 9 education project produced in conjunction with the Post -- a connection Ostrow didn't note until paragraph six. Across the page, a profile of Cracker appeared under the byline of former staffer Mark Stevens, but the piece failed to mention that Stevens is the spokesman for Denver Public Schools, a job that leads to frequent appearances as a source in Post articles. Entertainment editor Ed Smith says that Ostrow decided to laud the Channel 9 packages independently and wasn't pressured to do so; he adds that freelancers' backgrounds aren't described in the entertainment pages except in book reviews, and he believes that Stevens's status as a newsmaker wasn't relevant anyway. The full monty, it ain't.

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