10 Questions to a Media Lawyer: Kelli Slade
Kelli Slade is Senior Counsel at CNN in Atlanta. 1. How’d you get into media law? What was your first job? My first job out of law school was with a non-profit organization that provided residential services/group homes for male youth in Washington, DC. I think I wanted to save the world, or at least a…
Letter to a (Newer) Media Lawyer: Be Patient – And Nine Other Tips from Victor Kovner
George Freeman asked me if I would write a “Letter to a Newer Media Lawyer” from an “Older Media Lawyer.” First, I should begin with a little background for context and then add some non-legal advice that may seem obvious, but often is not. A very long time ago, after I was released from service…
Concern About Internet Regulation Brings Huge Crowd to Legal Frontiers in Digital Media Conference
The challenges of responding to new internet regulations and the calls for increased scrutiny of digital platforms were among the major topics at this year’s Legal Frontiers in Digital Media conference, held May 20-21, 2019 at the Mission Bay Conference Center in San Francisco. MLRC co-produced this two-half-day program with the Berkeley Center for Law…
Texas Lets The Sunshine In
By Wesley Lewis and Laura Prather During the 86th Session of the Texas Legislature lawmakers resolved to let more sunshine in through the passage of significant open government initiatives. It was a productive one for government transparency advocates across the state. While the legislature’s marquee property tax and education reform measures occupied much of the…
Federal Court Allows Glomar Response to FOIA Requests Regarding the President’s Allegations of Campaign Surveillance
By Jacquelyn Schell On April 3, 2019, Judge Cote of the Southern District of New York ruled in favor of the Department of Justice, upholding its refusal to confirm or deny whether the Government had additional records relating to electronic surveillance of the Trump campaign for president in 2016. Gizmodo Media Group, LLC v. Department…
California Supreme Court Limits Anti-SLAPP Protection Adds “Contribution To The Public Conversation” Requirement Not Found In The Statute
By Lincoln Bandlow On May 6, 2019, the California Supreme Court issued is ruling in Filmon.com, Inc. v. DoubleVerify, Inc., 2019 WL 1984290 (2019), reversing both trial court and Court of Appeal decisions which held that statements by defendant DoubleVerify in a report to its clients that related to the well-known alleged serial copyright infringer,…
Goldman v. Breitbart (‘Embed’) Case – Continued and (Not Quite) Ended
By Ken Norwick A piece I wrote in the February 2018 Media LawLetter recounted the first year or so of Goldman v. Breitbart – the (in some circles) infamous “embedded links” copyright case. That piece ended with a discussion of the decision rendered by SDNY Judge Katherine B. Forrest on February 15, 2018 that the…
You Lose, Fake News: SDNY Grants BuzzFeed Summary Judgment Dismissing Libel Suit from “King of Bullsh*t News”
By Katherine Bolger, Rachel Strom and John Browning The specter of fake news has haunted the media landscape in recent times, but reporting on the phenomenon has produced a reassuring and helpful decision for news organizations seeking summary judgment of libel claims on substantial truth grounds. Leidig v. BuzzFeed, Inc., 16 Civ. 0542, 2019 U.S….
Seventh Circuit Upholds Dismissal of Defamation, False Light and Related Lanham Act Claims on Opinion Grounds War of Experts Best Resolved By Rebuttal, Not Defamation Suit
By Steven P. Mandell Observing that “context is key,” the Seventh Circuit affirmed the dismissal of defamation, false light and related Lanham Act and state-law unfair competition claims against an author and publisher on the grounds that the allegedly defamatory statements were constitutionally-protected opinion. Board of Forensic Document Examiners v. American Bar Association, (7th Cir….
Texas Supreme Court Dismisses Pharmacy’s Libel Claims Against The Dallas Morning News
By Marc Fuller The Texas Supreme Court dismissed libel claims against The Dallas Morning News, Inc. and reporter Kevin Krause over a series of articles on local and national controversies surrounding compounding pharmacies. The Dallas Morning News, Inc. v. Hall, No. 17-0637, 2019 WL 2063576, *5 (Tex. May 10, 2019). The plaintiffs, Fort Worth-based Rxpress…
Tenth Circuit Affirms Summary Judgment in Favor of Sports Illustrated and Its Reporters in False Light Suit
By Jon Epstein In 2013, Sports Illustrated (“SI”) published a five-article series about the Oklahoma State University (“OSU”) football program. It explored questionable practices OSU allegedly used to recruit and retain top players. The first article in the series described boosters and coaches who made direct payments to players or “funnel[ed] money to players through…
NY Court Dismisses Libel By Implication Claim Over Wall Street Journal Article
Court Rejects Market Survey Purporting to Show Meaning By Abigail Everdell On March 26, 2019, Justice Kalish of the Supreme Court, New York County issued a decision dismissing defamation claims by prominent antiquities dealer Hicham Aboutaam against Dow Jones, publisher of the Wall Street Journal. See Case No. 156399/2017. Plaintiff’s claims – for defamation and…
NY Trial Court Grants Staten Island Advance’s Motion to Dismiss Libel by Implication Complaint
By Michael J. Grygiel and Cynthia E. Neidl It is often said that a picture is worth 1,000 words – but that aphorism is not to suggest, of course, that an archival photograph may serve as the predicate for a defamation claim when used to illustrate a true and accurate news report on a matter…
Florida Prosecutor’s Libel Complaint Barred by Fair Report Privilege and Lack of Actual Malice
By Jon M. Philipson On May 29, 2019, a Florida judge granted Waterman Broadcasting Corp. (“Waterman”) and reporter David Hodges’ (“Hodges”) motions for summary judgment against former State Attorney Stephen B. Russell, a public official, in a defamation action arising out of their news report referencing a U.S. Department of Justice report that concluded State…
Courts Consider Scope and Application of Fair Report Privilege
By Josef Ghosn Several recent cases have highlighted the role of the fair report privilege in protecting the press when reporting on government activity. The fair report privilege encourages public scrutiny of governmental activities by protecting fair and accurate reports of governmental proceedings from defamation and related claims challenging the underlying truth of those proceedings….
Second Circuit Affirms Dismissal of Lawyer’s Libel Suit vs. New York Post
Fair Report Privilege Applies to Press Coverage of Public Custody Trial A New York Post article headlined “Hostile mega-lawyer accused of abusing pregnant wife,” was a fair report of a bitter custody trial, the Second Circuit ruled recently. Zappin v. NYP Holdings, (2d. Cir. April 24, 2019) (unpublished) (Katzmann, Walker, Cabrannes, JJ.). The article was…
Hot Topics Roundtable: The Fair Report Privilege and the Trump Dossier
May’s hot topic is whether the fair report privilege should apply to BuzzFeed’s publication of the Trump Dossier – an issue now on appeal to the 11th Circuit in Gubarev v. BuzzFeed. The appeal raises several interesting issues surrounding the privilege, including what is or isn’t an official proceeding for purposes of the privilege. Our…
Making Lemonade Out of Lemons: Changes to Texas Anti-SLAPP Statute Benefit the Media
By Laura Prather On Sunday, June 2, 2019, Governor Greg Abbott signed HB 2730 into law. HB 2730 is the bill that makes changes to the Texas Citizens Participation Act (Texas’ Anti-SLAPP statute). It goes into effect on September 1, 2019 and applies to actions filed on or after that date. During the legislative process…
Lessons Learned in Getting a Robust SLAPP Statute Passed Unanimously in Tennessee
By Robb Harvey, Todd Hambidge, John Williams, and Braden Boucek Effective July 1, 2019, Tennessee will have a robust SLAPP statute, arguably one of, if not the broadest such statute in the country. The Tennessee Public Participation Act was passed unanimously by the Senate and House of Representatives, and signed by Governor Bill Lee on…
From the Executive Director’s Desk: Will Trump Soon Be Prosecuting the Mainstream Media?
Despite the Assange Indictment, the Sky is Not Falling Reaction to the recent superseding indictment of Julian Assange by MLRC members and friends has been alarming. “A bombshell that poses grave dangers for freedom of the press”, “criminalizing journalism” and “the journalistic process”, “a direct assault on the First Amendment”, and making “journalism a felony”…
MediaLawLetter May 2019
Download Publication MLRC From the Executive Director’s Desk: Will Trump Soon Be Prosecuting the Mainstream Media?Despite the Assange Indictment, the Sky is Not Falling Concern About Internet Regulation Brings Huge Crowd to Legal Frontiers in Digital Media Conference Letter to a (Newer) Media Lawyer: Be Patient – And Nine Other Tips from Victor Kovner 10…