5 million defamation judgment
Judge in defamation case rules blogger is no journalist
(Reuters) A federal judge has ruled that a Montana blogger was not acting Canada Goose Jackets as a journalist buy canada goose jacket when she posted inflammatory statements about an Oregon attorney and that she is not protected from a $2.5 million defamation judgment. District Judge Marco Hernandez is seen by outside observers as potentially having chilling effects on other bloggers.
The case buy canada goose jacket cheap stems from a lawsuit filed on January 14 against Eureka, Montana based blogger Crystal Cox that accused her of defaming Oregon attorney Kevin Padrick with writings on her website that called him corrupt canada goose clearance and falsely suggested he Canada Goose online may have hired a hitman to kill her, court papers state.
Padrick was working as a trustee in the bankruptcy case of an Oregon based real estate firm, Summit Accommodators Inc.
After Summit unraveled, executives with the firm were charged with wire fraud uk canada goose outlet and money Canada Goose Online laundering over an alleged scheme that saw customers lose millions, according to the Canada Goose sale FBI.
Cox, 41, who represented herself in the defamation trial, said canada goose uk shop in Canada Goose Outlet court papers that she canada goose coats canadagoosetomall on sale began blogging about the Summit bankruptcy in 2009 as an investigative journalist.
She presented arguments seeking legal protections often given canada goose store to the media on the grounds that, in her view, Padrick and his company Obsidian Finance Group were public figures.
But Judge Hernandez disagreed.
on the evidence presented at the time of trial, I conclude that plaintiffs are not public figures, defendant is not and Canada Goose Parka the statements at issue canada goose black friday sale were not made on an issue of public concern, the judge wrote in his ruling. there are not First Amendment implications.
Attorneys for Padrick presented as evidence a January 19 email from uk canada goose Cox, sent days after she was sued for defamation by Padrick and Obsidian, in which she offered the firm her Canada Goose Coats On Sale services protect online reputations and cheap Canada Goose promote businesses for $2,500 a month. Cox denied she was trying to extort money.
NO MEDIA CREDENTIALS? Hernandez, a federal judge for the District of Oregon, found Cox failed to present evidence that she had any media credentials or affiliation canada goose uk black friday with a news entity, or that she had checked her facts or tried to contact the other side to both sides of the story.
David Ardia, co director of the University of North Carolina center for media law and policy, said the judge exhibited a and myopic view of journalism in his ruling against Cox.
is no accepted definition of journalism or who is a canada goose sale journalist, he said. have wisely shied away from wading into that debate unless they absolutely have to.
John Barrows, executive canada goose director of the Montana Newspaper Association, told Reuters he found the ruling but that his canada goose clearance sale group would review it further.
the concern from a narrow point of view on canada goose factory sale our point would be on our newspapers blog pages, Barrows said of the ruling. that apply to comments that are placed on the blogs, on the comment sections of our newspaper websites?
Most newspapers and media companies do not subject reader comments posted online to the same journalistic standards they canada goose uk outlet apply to their own reporters. Supreme Court decision, which holds that, under the First Amendment, to be liable for defamation journalists must know or have warning signs that their inflammatory statements against a public figure are false.
Hernandez ruling denying Cox protection under that malice standard came a day after a federal court jury found Cox had defamed Obsidian and Padrick, and ordered her to pay $1 million to the company and $1.5 million to Padrick.
Cox told Reuters she plans to appeal, and that attorneys have offered to defend her.
am a journalist, I have over 400 blogs and I have been doing this for years, Cox canada goose coats said. may say I not mainstream, but what could be more mainstream than the Internet, really?
Padrick, 56, said in canadian goose jacket a telephone interview that, because of Cox cheap canada goose uk writings, a Google search of his name revealed pages of false information and that problem will continue for years, because posts can be online and not erased.
