Word: diadiun
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...brawl at a high school wrestling match in Lake County, Ohio. As a result of that fracas, former wrestling coach Michael Milkovich was officially censured and his team put on probation. The penalties, however, were set aside after a court hearing. That led indignant sports columnist J. Theodore Diadiun to write in the Lake County News-Herald: "Anyone who attended the meet . . . knows in his heart that Milkovich and ((school superintendent H. Donald)) Scott lied at the hearing after each having given his solemn oath to tell the truth. But they got away with it. Is that the kind...
Milkovich read Diadiun's article as an accusation of perjury. Diadiun argues that it is not about perjury but about the responsibility of an educator to set a moral example and to take responsibility for his actions. Even the basic facts remain in dispute. The coach says he shrugged at a decision disqualifying one of his wrestlers; the writer claims the coach made "wild gestures," thereby precipitating the melee...
...Supreme Court decides that Diadiun's column was essentially a statement of opinion, the facts will become moot. Harmful opinions, said the court in a famous 1974 decision, could not be corrected by judges and juries, but only through "the competition of other ideas." At the same time, however, the Justices found no redeeming value in "false statements of fact," implying that fact and opinion are quite separable, even though the court...
...Milkovich's side, the legal issue is straightforward. "If the language is defamatory and may be proved false, it is plainly actionable," insists Milkovich's attorney, Brent English. Diadiun's supporters argue that making isolated facts in an article of opinion vulnerable to defamation damages would inhibit editorialists from arguing that a crook was wrongly found innocent, or sportswriters from criticizing questionable calls by umpires and referees. However, the Supreme Court -- reluctant to resolve the opinion-fact dilemma in the past -- could decide the case in a way that once again sidesteps the issue...
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