Question

[aolrocks12]

Pennsylvania

I work for the federal government and one day during work I had to inform the people that the juice boxes that they have brought were permitted but they could not go through the automatic machine. Without getting into much details, I gave them their options if they didn't want to open the juice and they declined. Eventually, they open the one bottle for testing and along they went. Well 2-3 weeks later an article comes out about how our organization did not follow the correct rules and basically was smearing the agency and the officer involved. Internal investigations have determined the officer did nothing wrong; but because of the news article being published and the officer knowing that it was him, the officer has not been able to sleep, he has has emotional distress ( all verified from doctor visits ) and the officer going to management and asking for more information.

I work for an agency were people complain all the time and we get called nasty names all the time. I've never let it affect me; but this news article has affected me quite some bit. I don't know if it's because they are lying in the article and my official agency has made no response or if it's because I want to respond to the article personally but feel I cannot because of the nature of my job.

Long story short, my management knows the article has affected me emotionally and I feel extremely hurt by this article because it really is lying and our agency's investigation confirmed this. My doctor was suggesting that I get in contact with a lawyer because of the way it was affected me.

The article did not mention my name per se but they did elude to that it was a "young, white officer". Before I actually go to a local lawyer here, do I actually have a case?

Also, the person who made the complaint was an ADA from a certain state who thought he knew the rules.

Thank you for the help and feedback

 

[Zigner]

A case for what?

 

[Zigner]

The OP might have a shot at work comp...

 

[quincy]

Pennsylvania

I work for the federal government and one day during work I had to inform the people that the juice boxes that they have brought were permitted but they could not go through the automatic machine. Without getting into much details, I gave them their options if they didn't want to open the juice and they declined. Eventually, they open the one bottle for testing and along they went. Well 2-3 weeks later an article comes out about how our organization did not follow the correct rules and basically was smearing the agency and the officer involved. Internal investigations have determined the officer did nothing wrong; but because of the news article being published and the officer knowing that it was him, the officer has not been able to sleep, he has has emotional distress ( all verified from doctor visits ) and the officer going to management and asking for more information.

I work for an agency were people complain all the time and we get called nasty names all the time. I've never let it affect me; but this news article has affected me quite some bit. I don't know if it's because they are lying in the article and my official agency has made no response or if it's because I want to respond to the article personally but feel I cannot because of the nature of my job.

Long story short, my management knows the article has affected me emotionally and I feel extremely hurt by this article because it really is lying and our agency's investigation confirmed this. My doctor was suggesting that I get in contact with a lawyer because of the way it was affected me.

The article did not mention my name per se but they did elude to that it was a "young, white officer". Before I actually go to a local lawyer here, do I actually have a case?

Also, the person who made the complaint was an ADA from a certain state who thought he knew the rules.

Thank you for the help and feedback

Where was this article about the "young, white officer" published? Who wrote it? Have others in the agency identified you as being the officer mentioned and do they believe what was written? How has this affected you economically (loss of job, loss of promotion) or has it only had an emotional effect?

If a complaint about procedures was made to the proper agency for investigatory purposes, this is unlikely to support a defamation claim. The matter was investigated and all procedures were apparently found to be followed properly.

I do not see that you have much in the way of a defamation claim but you can have the article reviewed by an attorney in your area.

 

[FlyingRon]

Exposing the truth is not defamation.
Not providing something that can identify you to the public is not defamation.
Further, suits against the press reporting on government officials is EXTREMELY difficult to make. You may wish to read the NY Times v. Sullivan.

 

[quincy]

Exposing the truth is not defamation.
Not providing something that can identify you to the public is not defamation.
Further, suits against the press reporting on government officials is EXTREMELY difficult to make. You may wish to read the NY Times v. Sullivan.

Exposing the truth is generally not defamation - but in Pennsylvania that has not always been the case, due to a quirky exception to the state's defamation law.

Because aolrocks12 mentioned that he and the agency were "smeared," how exactly he was smeared in the article can make a difference.

It does not necessarily matter if aolrocks12 was not identified by name if he was identifiable by content (e.g., if he was the only "young, white officer"). The "young, white officer" phrase, by the way, makes me think that the article was not published in a traditional news publication.

At any rate, if false statements of facts were knowingly false when published (i.e., after the investigation determined that the officer did nothing wrong), or if false statements were made carelessly without regard for the truth or falsity of the statements, these false statements could potentially support a claim - if material harm can be demonstrated.

I am not seeing any defamation claim (or workers compensation claim) from what has been posted so far, though.

 

[aolrocks12]

Say I don't have a court case ( which I thought was a long shot anyway) could I still write something back to refute the accusations in the article? Or will that cause more problems?

 

[TigerD]

I really don't think it is possible to smear the TSA. That agency pretty much earned the crappy reputation it has.

TD

 

[Proserpina]

Say I don't have a court case ( which I thought was a long shot anyway) could I still write something back to refute the accusations in the article? Or will that cause more problems?

You could, but you'd likely be doing little but dragging out the whole thing even longer.

The general public does put quite a lot of faith into that old favourite, "The lady doth protest too much, methinks" (which, on a completely different note, doesn't actually mean what we all tend to think it means in the first place!)

 

[quincy]

Say I don't have a court case ( which I thought was a long shot anyway) could I still write something back to refute the accusations in the article? Or will that cause more problems?

Where did the article appear (what sort of publication)?

If it is a traditional newspaper, it is possible to contact the editor of the paper and ask for a correction to the article or a retraction (a retraction would be unlikely). If it is a traditional newspaper, it is possible to write a letter to the editor making corrections to the article yourself. But you know how your agency operates and what will be tolerated and what won't. If sending a letter to the paper is something your employer would be less-than-pleased about, you will have to make the decision to let it all go or risk repercussions in your workplace.

If you have not suffered any, or any substantial, reputational harm from what appeared in the article, it is probably best to let it go. Most people probably don't care. Most people are probably busy complaining about something or someone else by now and have totally forgotten the tale of the "young, white officer and the juice boxes."

It is up to you, aolrocks12. If this is seriously bothering you, run it by an attorney in your area. Good luck.

 

[aolrocks12]

The Philadelphia Daily News

 

[quincy]

The Philadelphia Daily News

Thank you for providing the name of the paper, aolrocks.

You can contact the editor of the paper, it this is the route you want to take. For letters to the editor, you will need to provide your name and address. The problem with this is obvious. Your identity right now is not disclosed in full and many would not connect you to the article. A letter to the editor can change this.

If you choose to write a letter to the editor to clarify misstatements in the published article, it will be important to draft the letter very carefully so that you do not defame the writer of the article as you feel the writer has defamed you. State facts and leave out all emotions. It will be the extraneous information added to the letter (the exaggerations or false facts) that can be problematic for a letter writer.

Again, you can have the article personally reviewed by an attorney in your area if what was written has dramatically affected your life. I am not seeing evidence of this in your posts but what you decide to do is ultimately up to you. Good luck.

 

[Shadowbunny]

aolrocks, you may want to be careful about writing a letter (or contacting the editor) if it appears as if you're representing the agency. Most fed agencies have a public affairs office who frowns upon employees taking it upon themselves to contact the media.

 

[quincy]

aolrocks, you may want to be careful about writing a letter (or contacting the editor) if it appears as if you're representing the agency. Most fed agencies have a public affairs office who frowns upon employees taking it upon themselves to contact the media.

That is definitely a downside to taking this any further. He needs to know how his agency wants the matter addressed (or if they want it addressed) and he needs to assess their reaction if he moves ahead with plans to "set the record straight."

If the reputational injury he has suffered is severe enough (and I am seeing no indication of that in what has been posted), then it can make sense to correct the misinformation. A letter to the news publication, to either demand a correction to the article or to demand a retraction, is one way to do this. A letter to the editor is another way. These are the inexpensive ways to potentially resolve the issue (but they come with their own set of problems). A lawsuit would be the expensive way to do this (and, again, there are problems with this solution beyond the high costs).

Without a review of what was written and how what was written is false, and without knowing what sort of effects have resulted from any falsehoods in the article, it is hard to say if it is best for aolrocks to let is all go (which I suspect is probably the case) or whether to make sure the truth of the matter is known through one of the means available to do this. This should be old news already, though, and forgotten by many if not most who ran across the article and actually read it.