Word: libeller
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Masson sued for libel, claiming that he had never said any of these things and that other quotations had been distorted to make him look ridiculous. A long legal wrangle ensued, during which Malcolm, in a pretrial deposition, conceded that she had combined a number of Masson's comments over a period of months to suggest that they had all occurred during a single lunch at a restaurant in Berkeley. Her 40 or so hours of tapes and her notes of interviews with Masson do not contain the three quotations he claimed were fabricated. Still, her legal defense maintained that...
Despite all the fuss, the issue doesn't seem very complicated. "X said Y" is a factual assertion. If X didn't say Y, it is a false assertion. But falsehood is just one part of a libel case. You have to prove the falsehood was defamatory. You have to prove you've been harmed. These constraints will take care of most of the nightmare scenarios journalists worry about, such as being sued for "cleaning up" quotes. Above all, if X is a public figure, you have to prove the misquote was committed with "reckless disregard for the truth...
Although Slichter declined comment to the Independent many, many times during the search, he never said anything along the lines of what you "reported." I suggest that you check your libel handbook and be more careful of printing supermarket tabloid-style falsehoods in the future. Josh Clark Executive News Director Harvard Independent
That admission, not surprisingly, drew an outcry from women's rights activists, newspaper columnists and others. Depardieu later denied making the statements and threatened a libel suit against TIME and any news organization that reprinted them. "It is perhaps accurate to say that I had sexual experiences at an early age," the actor said in a statement. "But rape -- never. I respect women too much." The TIME interview, which was conducted in French, is on tape. The Depardieu camp contends that his words were mistranslated and that he admitted only to having witnessed rapes. TIME has refused the actor...
Bulger said he had no plans to file a libel suit against Dershowitz. Under libel law, both men likely would be ruled public figures, which creates a heavy burden of proof for plaintiffs in law suits...