Ex-Publicist at Fox’s FX Gets Probation for Eavesdropping

A former senior television publicist was sentenced to three years’ probation Tuesday for eavesdropping on more than 100 executive conference calls at the FX cable channel after being fired by the company.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Norman J. Shapiro also ordered Steve Webster, 38, of Manhattan Beach to pay $22,607 in restitution to FX parent Fox Entertainment Group for legal costs.

Shapiro said he did not view Webster as a threat to FX, spurning calls for a harsher sentence from Los Angeles County Deputy Dist. Atty. Jeffrey McGrath. McGrath urged that Webster at a minimum be ordered to spend 90 days in prison for an independent psychological evaluation.

McGrath said he was skeptical of Webster’s claims that he was remorseful. McGrath said Webster claimed that he listened in on calls only to find out whether executives were talking about him. But Webster was found with a laptop computer from FX that allowed him to gain access to company e-mails and download confidential business plans, McGrath said.

“He’s a publicist,” McGrath said. “His job is to spin and to manipulate to get what he wants.”

Webster’s lawyer, David Scheper, called the sentence fair, adding that his client’s actions were “a once-in-a-lifetime bad reaction” to being fired from a job he loved.

Webster pleaded no contest in September to one count of criminal wiretapping for dialing in undetected to the conference calls after being fired from FX in July 2001. Webster continued to listen to the calls even after moving on to new jobs at the Game Show Network and the Universal Television Group, where he was senior vice president of publicity. Webster is now a consultant, Scheper said.

A spokeswoman for Fox said the company had no comment.