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March 2017

MediaLawLetter February 2017

PUBLICATION:

in this issue

Ten Questions to a Media Lawyer: Laura Prather

The second subject of our ongoing series, Laura Prather is chair of the MLRC Defense Counsel Section and a partner at Haynes and Boone in Austin. If you’d like to participate (either by email or phone interview) let us know – medialaw@medialaw.org. 1. How’d you get into media law? What was your first job? I…

Tennessee Appellate Court: Press Shield Law Protects Dateline from Disclosing Unaired Interview

By Kevin Delaney and Samantha Williams Affirming the decision of the Criminal Court in Knoxville, the Court of Appeals of Tennessee ruled 3-0 on February 13, 2017 that state prosecutors had failed to show that Dateline NBC is not entitled to protection under Tennessee’s Press Shield Law, Tenn. Code Ann. § 24-1-208. Tennessee v. Clark….

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Biometric Privacy Class Action Falls Flat Under Spokeo

By Jeff Hermes On January 27, 2017, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (Koeltl, J.) dismissed a putative class action against New York-based game developer Take-Two Interactive Software (“Take-Two”), over facial capture technology implemented in its “NBA 2K15” and “NBA 2K16” video games. The decision, Vigil v. Take-Two Interactive Software,…

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Defamation Case vs. Texas Newspaper Survives Summary Judgment

Series of Articles as a Whole Could Be False and Defamatory By Allison Venuti A Texas Appeals Court affirmed in part denial of summary judgment to the Corpus Christi Caller-Times newspaper. Scripps NP Operating, LLC v. Carter, 2016 Tex. App. LEXIS 13519 (Tex. App. Corpus Christi Dec. 21, 2016). The court held that a reasonable…

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New York Appellate Court Reinstates Statutory Privacy Case Against Lifetime Docudrama

Axe Murderers Have Name & Image Rights, Too! By Ed Klaris & Alexia Bedat Christopher Porco, the man convicted in 2006 of killing his father and attempting to kill his mother with an ax while they slept in their home, has a claim under New York’s Civil Rights Law § 50 and 51, the New…

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DC Superior Court Grants Anti-SLAPP Motion and Dismisses Liberian Public Works Minister’s Libel Complaint

By Alexandra Daniels On December 12, 2016, the District of Columbia Superior Court dismissed a defamation claim brought by W. Gyude Moore, Liberia’s Minister of Public Works, against a Delaware radio host: Henry Costa. Moore v. Costa. Judge Steven M. Wellner granted Costa’s anti-SLAPP special motion to dismiss because Moore could not show that the…

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Georgia Court Rules Anti-SLAPP Law Cannot Be Used in Federal Court

SLAPP Law Conflicts With Federal Motion to Dismiss Standard Siding with the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals and dicta from the Ninth Circuit, a Georgia federal district court recently denied a motion by CNN to strike a defamation complaint under the state’s anti-SLAPP statute, holding that the Georgia statute directly conflicted with Federal Rule 12(b)(6)…

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11th Circuit, Applying CA Anti-SLAPP Law, Holds No Actual Malice in Doctors’ Dispute

Court Also Finds No Commercial Speech on Lanham Act Claim By Marc Randazza In a hotly-contested case, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit recently gave a double First Amendment win to Dr. Steven Novella, the well-known host of The Skeptics Guide to the Universe and a science journalist on the blog Science…

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Massachusetts High Court: Anti-SLAPP Law Protects Opinion Writing

By Jeffrey J. Pyle The Massachusetts Anti-SLAPP Law does not have a particularly good reputation in media circles. By its terms, it applies only to claims based on “a party’s exercise of its right of petition,” not to claims based on the exercise of free speech. However, in a recent case, Cardno Chemrisk v. Foytlin,…

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Texas Supreme Court Reverses and Remands Important Media Defamation Case for New Trial

Newspaper to Seek Rehearing to Have Case Dismissed By John K. Edwards, Amanda Bush, and Luke Gilman In this time of intense debate over the appropriate scope of free speech rights on matters of public concern, the Texas Supreme Court recently sided in favor of broadly protecting such speech. Hopefully, this will represent a harbinger of…

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Protecting a Press and First Amendment Under Fire: A Blueprint for Action

Free Press Coalition Forming; Pro Bono Help Sought From the Executive Director’s Desk “How’re you doin?” used to be the usual way I was greeted. In the age of Trump, that has changed to “What are you doin’?” The unspoken tail of that question/sentence is…”about the attacks on the media and First Amendment.” It’s not…

MediaLawLetter February 2017

 Download Publication MLRC From the Executive Director’s Desk, Protecting a Press and  First Amendment Under Fire: A Blueprint for Action Free Press Coalition Forming; Pro Bono Help Sought Ten Questions to a Media Lawyer: Laura Prather The Second Installment in Our New Series LIBEL & PRIVACY Texas Supreme Court Reverses and Remands Important Media Defamation…