Libel law in the trenches: Reflections on current data on lible litigation

Despite the battery of protections granted the media in the line of cases from New York Times Co. v. Sullivan (1964) through Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc. (1974) and beyond, observers continue to complain that the media faces financial ruin at the hands of undeterrable plaintiffs, lawless local judges...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Virginia law review 2001-05, Vol.87 (3), p.503
Main Author: Logan, David A
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
First Amendment-US
Libel & slander
Media
Statistical data
Supreme Court decisions
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Despite the battery of protections granted the media in the line of cases from New York Times Co. v. Sullivan (1964) through Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc. (1974) and beyond, observers continue to complain that the media faces financial ruin at the hands of undeterrable plaintiffs, lawless local judges, and vindictive, spendthrift juries. This essay consider whether the lingering image of the embattled media, accurate in the maelstrom of the Civil Rights era, is consistent with important recently-released empirical data, or rather is a myth, perpetuated by the media and its allies. This essay concludes that the New York Times/Gertz regime has eviscerated the law of libel to the point that it now poses little serious threat to the First amendment rights of the media, and that the image of the contemporary media, cowed by the threat of libel, is unsupported by the available evidence. More generally, the data are a testament that a First Amendment culture has taken deep root in both the federal and state judiciaries and support the view that the Court's libel decisions rank among the great civil liberties victories of the last half-century.
ISSN:1942-9967