Revisiting Private Figure Defamation Claims in the Internet Era? Aaron Anderson, et al, v. WBNS-TV, Inc. -- On April 24, 2019, the Supreme Court of Ohio head oral argument in Aaron Anderson, et al, v. WBNS-TV, Inc., 2018-0792. At issue in the case is the requisite degree of fault required in this internet era in private figure defamation cases where the media publish stories about matters of public concern in reliance on information provided by official sources.
The Columbus Police Department (“CPD”) emailed a Media Information Sheet to news organizations detailing a robbery on November 26, 2015 at a Columbus waterpark in which suspects pointed a gun at an 8-year-old girl and stole her hoverboard. The Media Information Sheet was accompanied by two photographs. One, called the “Parking Lot Photograph” shows an empty parking lot with several grainy images standing together. The other, known as the “Hall Photograph” clearly shows two males and a female, later identified as the Andersons, walking down a hall. The CPD Media Information Sheet refers to the persons in the photographs only as persons who may have been involved in the crime.
On January 20, 2016, WBNS-TV (“WBNS”) put together a news broadcast and a web-based story about this incident. WBNS relied on the Media Information Sheet in preparing its broadcast, but rewrote the story. The broadcast showed the photographs and referred to those involved at different points as robbers and suspects. The web story and Facebook post included the photographs and a bold-font headline, “Robbers Put Gun To Child’s Head And Steal Hoverboard.”
The mother of the children in the photographs took the kids to the police, they were cleared and the lawsuit entailed.
WBNS filed a motion for summary judgment which was granted by the trial court. The Andersons appealed. On appeal, the Tenth District, in a unanimous opinion, reversed the grant of summary judgment on the defamation claim, finding that there were genuine issues of material fact as to whether broadcasting an accusation that the Andersons were robbers without investigation, and based a set of police documents which claimed only that some of the Andersons were suspects, is sufficient to establish a violation of the requisite duty of care. The matter is now before the Ohio Supreme Court.
http://www.legallyspeakingohio.com/2...v-wbns-tv-inc/