Term Paper on "When Media Treads on Thin Ice"

Quoted Instructions for "When Media Treads on Thin Ice" Assignment:

Below you will find 10 Questions in Part I and 10 Questions in Part II. There are 20 questions total, so no more than 100 words per question. Use any source and provide reference. Answer all the questions (in numbered paragraph form and not essay form. For example, Question 1:______ and Answer 1:______. )

Part I

1. A Post reporter found on a dirt road in Iraq some maps and documents created by the U.S. military relating to military action in the war. Because the Post is a responsible newspaper, it calls and asks a high-ranking military commander to explain the materials and put them in context. The next day, the Government goes to court to keep the Post from publishing documents. a. What is the legal name for what the Government is seeking? b. What is the standard the judge will use to determine if the Government will succeed? c. Where does the standard come from?

2. The Daily Snooze is working on an article about the effect of the recession on young professionals. The Snooze’s reporter interviews a young architect Iva Builtit, who is willing to talk about another architect and his downsized firm, John Harvard, and who says that in contrast with Harvard’s application form, Harvard never attended the Yale School of Design. The reporter puts Builtit’s direct quote in the Snooze, naming Builtit and quoting his statement accurately. The article says that Harvard, when asked to respond, had no comment.

Assuming Harvard did attend Yale, could the Snooze be trouble for his reporting? Why or why not?

3. Microsoft has a rule that no employee can wear a political button or pin, and that violation of this rule can lead to severe discipline. Last month, an employee, Bud Button, was suspended without pay for wearing a “Palin in ’16” button. Bud Button sues. How strong if the First Amendment argument which Button makes? Why?

4. A state statute says it is a crime to distribute or publish the name of a juvenile defendant. A 17-year old student, I.M. Hip, has been accused of a murder at a high school and is about to go to trial. A state prosecutor leaks to a Post reporter I.M. Hip’s name and the reporter promptly publishes a Post article on the case mentioning his name.

I.M. Hip sues the Post for publishing his name in violation of the statute. What is the likely result? What is the test the court will use (and the names or types of cases it will use as a precedent)? What jeopardy exists for the Post reporter?

5. The Assistant Secretary of Defense (an appointed, not elected, post) has been defamed in a Post article. The false statement in the article, which hurt the reputation of the Assistant Secretary, was completely caused by a Post reporter carelessly misreading a document. (In addition, many years ago the Assistant Secretary and the reporter had been in college together, and the Assistant Secretary had stolen the reporter’s girlfriend).

Focusing on the issue of fault, what is the likely outcome of the libel case? Why?

6. CRASH, the Center for Retired Adult Senile and Handicapped, California’s 2nd largest private assisted-living agency for mentally challenged old people, has long been rumored to give inadequate care and to abuse and injure patients. To better check this out, KSLZ-TV in Los Angeles has its producers place hidden cameras in patient’s rooms in two of its homes. They show patients being mercilessly beaten, screamed at, and generally abused by the homes staff. After KSLV-TV broadcasts the story, CRASH’S business crashes. Two of the patients shown on the tapes sue KSLV-TV. What claims will they bring and what will be the results?

7. Donald Trump has been described in a Post article as routinely not paying general contractors who worked for him and then when they complain, firing them. The article (a) includes Trump’s denial of this charge and (b) a few days later the Post runs a retraction admitting the facts were wrong. (c) Trump does not allege that he lost any money as a result of the false statement (in fact, the ratings for his TV Show “Celebrity Apprentice” went up in the days after the article).

Assuming that the charges are false and that actual malice could be proven, and discussing the above considerations, is the Post in trouble in a possible libel lawsuit?

8. Your blog investigating local pizzerias in the Village. A worker at Pepsi’s Pizza, who seems fully reliable and unbiased, tells you on a first-hand and true basis that the owner uses old and rotten tomatoes to make his pizzas and on occasion makes the workers steal cheese from local groceries. He tells you this on a confidential basis (which you agree to) because he wants to publicize the unsafe and illegal practices of this boss, but, of course, is afraid to be named because he would be fired.

You publish the story. If the owner sues you for libel, are you in trouble?

9. The Daily Post published an article in print and on its website about a new large manufacturing plant in town, praising its new chairman. In response, Mr. Olds has written a letter rather negative to the editor to the newspaper which is published. It said that the article mischaracterized the plant, and that he has had personal dealings with the chairman, and that he was “a very aggressive manager who was very hard to work with.”

Another response came from Mr. Nu, in a post which ran on the Daily Post’s website community forum. The post also disagreed with the article, saying that Nu was an eyewitness to an incident where the chairman caressed his secretary, and that Nu was personally aware of an incident in which the chairman had accepted a contract with a contractor who also agreed to build his country house for free.

The chairman sued the Daily Post for libel. What are likely the legal outcomes and why?

10. Ted Teacher, a high school professor at a local private school, is being threatened with termination. In an article about him and is problems the “Everyone’s Education Eye” blog runs a story which includes a paragraph stating that 20 years ago as a youth he was found guilty of stealing $15,000 from his uncle. Because of a careless error by a clerk, which was wrong; he only stole $5,000. The article also says that another teacher at the school, Lynn Lecturer, said she clearly saw Ted accept as gifts to Broadway shows from school parents hoping for higher grades for their children, in clear violation of school rules. “If Ted sues the blog, is the blog in trouble?”

*Part II*

Answer the below questions (in numbered paragraph form) the legal issues you see arising from this scenario. Don’t discuss relevance/irrelevance; some of this is hypothetical is somewhat attenuated. What actions will you take? What are the arguments on each side? What are the likely consequences and results?

Washington has been abuzz over rumors that threaten to choke the Presidency. Specifically, several newspapers have reported allegations that President Al Grass has been smoking and distributing marijuana in the Oval Office. In violation of federal law, it is alleged that he has been providing pot to various congressman in return for promises of support of his planned legislation, and to various corporate executives with an understanding that they would more than return the favor in the way of campaign donations.

1. A federal grand jury has been convened to look into these charges. One day you receive in the mail a transcript of secret grand jury testimony of one of the corporate executives which is very damaging to the President. It is authentic. It comes with a short note from a prospector you have used as a source before, Dave Throat. The note says, “I thought you would be interested in publishing this, but I can’t have anything to do with it.” 2. Before long the Secretary of Agriculture, Jim Farmer, is indicted for being the person to actually grow the pot for the President. At the outset of the criminal case against him, the federal judge issues a broad gag order: because of the flood of publicity about the case to date, it prohibits the media, as well as the lawyers and parties in the case, from disseminating or publishing any information about the case until a jury is selected and sequestered. One result is that you are getting very little information about what is going on in this criminal case; you can’t even find out when the upcoming hearings or court dates are.

3. You do learn that a hearing has been scheduled to determine whether some marijuana leafs, which the prosecution wants to offer in evidence at the trial, will be admissible. The defense is arguing that the prosecution did such a sloppy job in maintaining the leafs that it cannot be proved that those marijuana leafs actually came from Mr. Farmer’s plot. The defense moves that this pretrial suppression hearing be closed to the public and the press. Even though the marijuana leafs would be spectacular evidence (they are said to contain Mr. Farmer’s fingerprints) for the prosecution, the prosecutors join in the motion for closure.

4. At the same time a sexual harassment case has been brought against one of the President Grass’s aides, Stud Romeo, by a woman intern with whom he apparently smoked in the Oval Office when the President was traveling. In that case there are allegations that Mr. Romeo many years ago, as a college student, had similarly harassed some teen-age girls. A hearing is about to take place about whether these alleged incidents can be included in this case. In recognition of these girls’ concerns about their privacy, and a state statute barring the publication of the name of a rape or sexual harassment victim, but balancing these with interests in openness, the judge has ruled that the hearing will be open, but that the reporters, in return for being allowed to attend, must agree not to publish the names of these harassment victims.

5. You are having difficulty finding a photograph of Stud Romeo whose looks are stunning. Finally, on an internet website of a local newspaper in the town where Romeo went to college four states away, you find an old photo of Romeo taken by its photographer, with the young girl he allegedly harassed identifiable in the background. You take the photos and put it in your paper.

6. You also take webgraph, from a 5 minute Fox video on a Fox –TV website, of the best part of that video: it shows, albeit taken from a helicopter, Mr. Farmer tending to his marijuana plants on his land. Your editor is so intrigued by this that rents a helicopter and flies over Farmer’s farm from only 500 feet high. Your photographer sees the pot plants, and also sees Mrs. Farmer lying topless at her swimming pool. Unfortunately, the photographer’s camera malfunctions and none of the shots can be used.

7. Mr. Farmer’s brother, to whom he speaks every day, owns a deli in New York City. It has been rumored that a lot of illegal sports gambling takes place in the store, and that the money earned from the operation helps finance Mr. Farmer’s drug habit. The rumors have never been confirmed, and Mr. Farmer’s brother has always denied them. You decide the only way to get to the bottom of this is to take a hidden camera into the store and film the activities there. You pretend to be hungry and order a bunch of heroes ; you don’t tell the sandwich man that you are a journalist.

8. Later another reporter at the paper , intent on finding illicit gambling at the deli, breaks into the deli’s voicemail system; it is the only way he can prove that illegal gambling is going on at the Secretary’s brother’s store. Sure enough, he acquires the key proof: he finds voicemails making clear that illegal gambling is taking place. After the paper publishes this, customers stop going to the deli and shortly after it goes of business.

9. You also decide to visit Farmer’s farm where the marijuana is grown. You go there, and see , but ignore , a huge “No Trespassing” sign on the entrance to his property. You move further into his property, taking photographs as you go, including some good shots of some good shots of some hippie posters and a waterbed in his bedroom, until you meet a guard who not only forces you to leave, but also demands that you not publish any of the photos you took while on the property.

10. Finally, you get a call from C.E. Oh, the head of a Fortune 500 Company, who tells you that he was solicited by the President for a huge campaign contribution, and that he President, in return, offered Mr. Oh a cruise with the President down the Potomac at which marijuana would be offered. Mr. Oh gets an agreement from you that you will treat him as confidential source. You believe his charges, and you publish them in your paper. Soon thereafter you get a subpoena from prosecutors seeking the identity of your source. They say that this might be the first big break in the campaign finance part of their investigation which has just started, and that their ability to talk to your source is critical to them.