Unlike my case, this is actual malice. It appears to have been a reckless disregard for the truth.
One thought on “Joy Reid’s Libel Suit”
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Unlike my case, this is actual malice. It appears to have been a reckless disregard for the truth.
Comments are closed.
This would have some bearing on cases where the plaintiff might be considered a “Limited Public Figure”.
A person who, just for hypothetical example, won a Nobel Prize for his work, complains that describing his work as “fraudulent” defames him personally and his reputation professionally. Is a Nobel laureate a “public official” ? Well, clearly no. Is he often invited to express judgements in public gatherings and events? Clearly, yes. So, then, such purely theoretically modeled individual is a “public figure”. Consequently, the standard of proof regarding the “malice” or lack of same with regard to descriptions of his work are higher. Public figures are by law presumed to be subject to more criticism and to be better able to respond to such criticism than ordinary, private, citizens.
The Reid case and definitions of public figures shouldn’t affect cases already in progress. But it might affect the next round of similar cases — presuming with no evidence that a very thin skinned, deep-pocketed, highly litigious, self-important, bald bearded ugly stupid dishonest incompetent data-torturing evil-doer could be found to file a similar case.