Word: libeler
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...young man, Charles Goldmark saw his father's political career blighted by accusations that he was a Communist. The father, John, a Washington State Democratic representative, won vindication in a notable 1963 libel suit. But he had already lost his seat in the Washington legislature, and he retired permanently from public life. His son Charles grew up to be a prominent Seattle lawyer and, along with his wife Annie, a respected community activist. They enjoyed a happy family life and an untarnished reputation. They had every reason to believe that the old accusations were at last behind them...
...when the Supreme Court ruled in the case of Herbert vs. Lando that plaintiffs in a libel suit have the right to probe into a journalist's "state of mind," many in the media bitterly protested. The courts, journalists argued, had become a kind of thought police, who licensed fishing expeditions into editorial decision making that would inevitably chill freedom of the press...
...fears were exaggerated; the news-gathering process does not appear to have frozen up. Moreover, it can be reasonably argued that in order to prove the press has recklessly or knowingly published a false hood--the legal standard that public figures must meet to win a libel case--it is necessary to probe a journalist's thinking...
...case of Herbert vs. Lando has taken another twist, one that has press defenders crowing instead of complaining. Last week the U.S. Court of Appeals in New York simply tossed the libel suit out of court. It had begun more than a decade ago, when Lieut. Colonel Anthony Herbert sued CBS, 60 Minutes Producer Barry Lando and Correspondent Mike Wallace for a 1973 broadcast questioning the Colonel's claim that he had been drummed out of the Army for reporting war crimes to his superiors. In a 43-page opinion, Judge Irving R. Kaufman, a member of the three-judge...
...significance of the opinion may be far reaching, according to some First Amendment experts, if it encourages judges to dismiss more libel cases before they turn into long and expensive trials. Since few libel cases ultimately result in large damage awards, it is the cost of trying them, not paying damages, that the press fears and regards as a threat to its free dom. Judge Kaufman's ruling, says Floyd Abrams, a leading First Amendment expert, could "go a long way toward relieving the burden that the recent explosion of libel litigation has brought about...