Media law
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Virginia Broadcasting Corp. v. Commonwealth
Virginia Supreme Court rules trial court did not err in refusing TV station’s request to have cameras present during the sentencing phase of convicted murder defendant George Huguely. The court attempted to reconcile two seemingly contradictory phrases within the statute and while setting forth the specific procedure to be used in the future, acknowledged that…
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Jordan v. Kollman (Virginia Supreme Court on libel)
Jordan, a resident of Colonial Heights, published advertisements criticizing the mayor for allowing low-income housing to be built in the city. In fact, the mayor had opposed the construction of the housing, and he sued for defamation. But the Court ruled that the mayor was a ‘public official’ required to show ‘actual malice’ in the…
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Carr v. Forbes Inc. (4th Cir. on libel)
An engineer who sued a magazine for defamation had made himself a limited-purpose public figure by his role in choosing and publicizing contracts. He could not show that the magazine acted with . . .actual malice.’
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Food Lion Inc. v. Capital Cities/ABC Inc. (4th Cir. on media law)
Defendant reporters got jobs with Food Lion through misrepresentation and made a videotape, which was aired on ABC, of the store’s unwholesome food handling practices. (1) The court held that, since the reporters were at-will employees for an indefinite period, there was no reliance on their misrepresentations that would support a fraud claim. (2) However,…
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Yeagle v. Collegiate Times (Va. Supreme Court on libel)
Yeagle, a college employee, filed a complaint against Virginia Tech’s Collegiate Times, alleging defamation after the phrase . . .director of butt licking’ appeared under her name in an article. Her suit was dismissed, and the Court upheld that dismissal. As a matter of law, the phrase could not convey a defamatory meaning. It contained…
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Reuber v. Food Chemical News Inc. (4th Cir. on libel)
Reuber, a scientist, declared himself a whistleblower and created the misleading impression that a controversial pesticide was carcinogenic. A newsletter published his employer’s reprimand, which stated that Reuber had engaged in unprofessional conduct. He sued for defamation and won in a jury trial which awarded him compensatory and punitive damages. On appeal, the Court reversed…
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Falwell v. Flynt (4th Cir. on libel)
Falwell brought suit against Larry Flynt and his magazine for libel, invasion of privacy, and intentional infliction of emotional distress after Hustler published a parody of the preacher having a drunken rendezvous with his own mother. (1) The district court dismissed the claim for invasion of privacy because the use of plaintiff’s name and likeness…
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The Gazette Inc. v. Harris (Virginia Supreme Court on libel)
In consolidated cases, several citizens sued newspapers for publishing defamatory articles about them. In each action, the trial court had applied a negligence standard, and the Court took the opportunity to clarify the standard of liability that should govern an award of compensatory damages to a private individual in a libel action. (1) A preponderance…
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Fleming v. Moore (Virginia Supreme Court on libel)
A broker wanted to build a low-income residential development on land neighboring Moore, a U.Va. professor who opposed the development. The broker’s application for rezoning was denied. Consequently, he published paid advertisements in The Cavalier Daily (U.Va.’s newspaper) saying Moore did “not want any black people within his sight.” Moore brought a libel action alleging…
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Landmark Communications Inc. v. Commonwealth
The Va. Supreme Court upheld a Virginia law punishing anyone who divulged information about the proceedings of the Virginia Judicial Inquiry and Review Commission. The defendant newspaper, after identifying a judge whose conduct was being investigated by the Commission, was convicted and fined for violating the law. The Court said the law was constitutional because…
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Sanders v. Harris (Virginia Supreme Court on libel)
Sanders, a professor at Virginia Western Community College, sued after a newspaper wrongly reported that she improperly withheld documents from her department head. Her employment contract with the university was not renewed after the article appeared, and she was unable to obtain another position with a university. The Court affirmed a circuit court’s ruling in…