The statements made by the writer of the newspaper’s Town Crier column would be considered Libel.
Respond to at least two of your peers’ posts (as well as any comments made by your instructor) in a substantive manner and provide information or concepts that they may not have considered. Each response should have a minimum of 100 words. Support your position by using information from the week’s readings. You are encouraged to post your required replies earlier in the week to promote more meaningful and interactive discourse in this discussion forum. Continue to monitor the discussion forum until Day 7 and respond with robust dialogue to anyone who replies to your initial post.
The post:
The statements made by the writer of the newspaper’s Town Crier column would be considered Libel. For the defendant to make a valid argument, they would have to cite conditional privileges. However, the defendant is fighting against a private figure which means they do not have to prove actual malice. Per the First Amendment, media personnel are given freedom of speech and freedom of press. These statements in the column are not backed up by factual evidence and would be seen as false assentation of facts. The only way for a successful defense would be if these statements were made to promote a common interest. However, this column was written as a speculation. Even though the media mostly has protection under the freedom of press, the lack of factual evidence will work against them in court. Jones would be considered a private figure as he is not a well-known public figure such as a government official or a celebrity. In private figure plaintiff cases, they are not expected to prove actual malice to win defamation cases (Langvardt et al., 2019).
Jones will likely win this case because the statements made by the defendant can be considered as false statements of fact. By citing negligence, Jones will win under the first Gertz rule.
References:
Langvardt, A. W., Barnes, A. J., Prenkert, J. D., McCrory, M. A., & Perry, J. E. (2019). Business law: The ethical, global, and e-commerce environment (17th ed.). Retrieved from https://www.vitalsource.com
Answer preview to the statements made by the writer of the newspaper’s Town Crier column would be considered Libel.
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