Suing a news agency for wrong information

[one_and_only]

What is the name of your state? CA

Hello,

Here is the situation:

There was a protest that was organized after a long time of planning. A news agency in the area covered the protest. There were at least 4,000 people at the protest, but the news agency said "around 300." When the mistake was pointed out to them, they changed it to "hundreds." One of the people attending the protest was furious that they "downplayed" (deliberately, according to him) the protest because of their own beliefs contradictory to the views of the protestors. The thing is that this angry protestor is an editor at a rather large newspaper (>20,000 subscribers). He wrote a column that got the front page and that had the news agency in big letters and the word "LIARS" right below. In the column he said that the news agency changed it to "hundreds" (instead of thousands) because otherwise they would have been sued. The guy, for all practical purposes, seems to be a very paranoid individual (always claiming, "deliberate manipulation" by the "liberal media" in his column). Here are my questions:

1). Could the newspaper really have been sued because of "misrepresenting information" (there is video showing obviously more than 300 people) and for what exactly?

2). Can the editor be sued for slandering the newspaper throughout his column, possibly causing the subscribers to essentially boycott the newspaper (would be hard to substantiate, I know)?

Thank you in advance.

 

[CdwJava]

1). Could the newspaper really have been sued because of "misrepresenting information" (there is video showing obviously more than 300 people) and for what exactly?

No. They could have said "dozens" and been just fine.

Hence the reason one must be careful what they read - the facts are not always what they seem. And any reporter who says he is unbiased is a liar (just listen to CNN). They might TRY to be unbiased, but on many issues, none of us can be wholly unbiased no matter how hard we might want to be.

2). Can the editor be sued for slandering the newspaper throughout his column, possibly causing the subscribers to essentially boycott the newspaper (would be hard to substantiate, I know)?

Realistically? No.

In practical terms, anyone can sue anyone for anything - provided they have enough money to flush down the toilet for attorneys. But, opinion is protected by speech. A paper is free to criticize another paper and challenge their figures.

- Carl

 

[one_and_only]

Thank you for your response. It is pretty much what I expected...it was just interesting that the editor wrote with such confidence when saying that the news agency could have been sued, while in reality, he really had no idea what he was talking about. Well...it did help his column a bit and pushed a more pursuasive tone, so I guess it was justified.

I also agree with your views on bias; being "unbiased," for the vast majority of situations (be it journalism, scientific inquiry, etcetera) and in my humble opinion, is simply a myth.

 

[CdwJava]

Well, anyone can be sued - so he was not incorrect. I just don't see how someone could be successfully sued for slander when writing an opinion piece in the newspaper.

- Carl

 

[BelizeBreeze]

Thank you for your response. It is pretty much what I expected...it was just interesting that the editor wrote with such confidence when saying that the news agency could have been sued, while in reality, he really had no idea what he was talking about. Well...it did help his column a bit and pushed a more pursuasive tone, so I guess it was justified.

I also agree with your views on bias; being "unbiased," for the vast majority of situations (be it journalism, scientific inquiry, etcetera) and in my humble opinion, is simply a myth.

The better suit would be against this Idiot Editor for calling the other newspaper Liars. And I would take that case in a heartbeat.