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Libel Litigation: A Chilling Prospect
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12738 |
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BOOK WORLD
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3 / 1987 |
3,571 Words |
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Phyllis Zagano
Phyllis Zagano is a contributing editor of Crisis. She has
served in the Navy. |
SUING THE PRESS
Libel, the Media, & Power
Rodney A. Smolla
New York: Oxford University Press
277 pp., $18.95
RECKLESS DISREGARD
Westmoreland v. CBS et al; Sharon v. Time
Renata Adler
243 pp., $16.95
Litigation, like war, is not an activity for the faint of heart. Nor is it something to be entered into lightly. The violence done to a person by an ill-chosen word or phrase in public can be redoubled in the relatively innocent act of self-defense. No doubt there are those who will manage to win cases that are not appealed to the highest court, but the precedents already set for the volatile combination of high awards and endless appeals is chilling the prospect of both the press and the public.
Smolla, an associate professor of law at the University of Arkansas School of Law, has followed libel law through the tortured recent past, from New York Times v. Sullivan through Westmoreland v. CBS et al. What he finds as key to the high awards is the willingness of juries to compensate for "injuries to the psyche" and of judges to support such compensation.
Even, so the issues are not clear-cut when the suing party is a public official. In the now-celebrated case of The New York Times v. Sullivan, Justice William Brennan
... (1999 of 21282 Characters)
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