Option 1: Cautious communication
You work in public relations here at Lamar University.
About ten years ago, a student named Jeff Jefferson was expelled from Lamar after a conflict he had with the University Press. He briefly joined the paper before quitting because he didn’t get along with other students on the staff. He founded a rival newspaper, the Lamar Record, and approached several Beaumont businesses seeking advertisers. He led the businesses to believe that his paper was a sanctioned student project of the university, which it was not. As a result, he was expelled.
Your office has been contacted by a reporter from Vanity Fair who is writing a story about a mostly unrelated event concerning the university’s administration that happened around the same time. The reporter intends to mention Jefferson’s expulsion as an example of the administration’s handling of problematic students. Another member of your office has drafted the following statement for the reporter:
Regarding the Expulsion of Lamar University student Jeff Jefferson: “Freedom of speech, as alleged, was in no way an issue in this matter. Rather, the issue was the act of Jeff Jefferson, student, entering into an unauthorized contract, following which funds were solicited under false representation of Lamar University. This was done without the university’s approval. Eight local businesses were solicited for a substantial sum of funds; these businesses were led to believe that their revenue was going to a Lamar University authorized project. Mr. Jefferson had been informed earlier that approval of the project was denied by the administration, yet he defiantly proceeded.”
Your boss wants your opinion on the release before it’s emailed to the reporter. Using your knowledge of comm law as gathered from class and the textbook, what advice can you give your boss with regard to libel? Write an email with your response. Use conversational language
Option 2: Bad dad defamation
You work for the Texas Tribune.
Texas’ Executive Office of Health and Human Services and Department of Corrections held an open-press panel discussion featuring corrections officials and inmates. The purpose of this press event was for state officials to discuss the success of its medication-assisted drug-treatment program implemented at the state’s correctional facilities. The panel discussion included an official from the Texas Executive Office of Health and Human Services; three officials from the Texas Department of Corrections; the White House Director of National Drug Control Policy, Michael Botticelli; and inmates from the correctional facilities.
During the panel discussion, government officials highlighted the benefits of medically treating (e.g., with methadone or suboxone (buprenorphine and naloxone)) inmates addicted to opioids. At some point during the event, government officials escorted four inmates on stage, including Crystal Olsen, who recounted her struggle with opioid addiction and the horrors of going through withdrawal without medication-assisted treatment. Relevant to this case, she went on to say:
“I guess that [my father] started me using heroin and that led to him prostituting me because he was also a drug addict and he needed to support his habit and now I ended up with a drug habit that needed to be supported also.”
After attending the press event, a Tribune news reporter wrote a news article that began by outlining the White House drug czar’s visit to the correctional facilities and then stated that the Obama administration plans to replicate the facilities’ medication-assisted drug-treatment program on a national level. The articles go on to discuss how few prisoners have access to medication-assisted treatment. The articles then recapped Olsen’s story. The relevant portions began with Ms. Olsen’s description of withdrawal: “I lay on my bed shaking, throwing up, going to the bathroom.” After discussing the logistics and costs of the drug-treatment program, the articles included the following: Olsen, the mother who described going into withdrawal in her cell, said she was 14 when she began using heroin with her father, who was a drug addict. She said he prostituted her to support his habit. “The opiates would stop me from feeling what I’ve been through,” she said. The articles ended with this quote from Olsen: “ ‘Every time I come into prison I have had to be taken off [methadone],’ she said. ‘I relapse every time I leave jail because I’ve been taken off my methadone. I hope that it works this time.’ ”
Crystal Olsen’s father, Todd Olson, is suing the Tribune. In his two-count complaint, he alleges that the statements his daughter made about him are false, and therefore the publication of Ms. Olsen’s statements was defamatory.
Your boss has a meeting tomorrow with a lawyer, but in the meantime, he has three questions: how likely is it that this case will go to trial? How do truth and actual malice come into play here? And, after those two, what’s the strongest defense the paper has? Write an email to your boss, use conversational language.
