John Eckerd’s Amazing Saga of Scandal

Last week, I gave props to DMN reporters Michael Grabell and Brendan Case for their story on MN1.com founder, Joshua Lankford. Turns out, the duo was just warming up. I admit I found it curious how a throwaway line in the piece could pass without comment. That line:

Addison-based Consolidated Sports Media Group Inc., which made a Girls Gone Wild-style video shot at NASCAR races, filed suit against Mr. Lankford, accusing him of helping to prepare a junk fax in 2004 designed to pump up the company’s stock price.

Grabell and Case explore Consolidated Sports Media Group in much more detail in a riveting two-part story on its founder John Eckerd. There’s the failed project Track Girls Gone Nutz, unpaid-for helicopter rides, a never-completed documentary about racetrack racism that may have been staged, and that’s all just in Part One. But don’t label Eckerd the Bad Guy just yet. Part Two suggests he was a victim. Read the whole thing.