Opinion ID: 169685
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Media Defendants' Motion to Dismiss

Text: We first review the district court's order partially granting the media defendants' motion to dismiss pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6) as to Anderson's right to privacy and intrusion upon seclusion claims. We review the district court's order de novo and apply the same standard as the district court. Moore v. Guthrie, 438 F.3d 1036, 1039 (10th Cir.2006). Rule 12(b)(6) provides for dismissal of a plaintiff's claims for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. . . . We accept as true all well-pleaded factual allegations and view them in the light most favorable to Anderson, the nonmoving party. Moore, 438 F.3d at 1039. We may uphold the grant of a motion to dismiss if, viewing the well-pleaded factual allegations in the complaint as true and in the light most favorable to the non-moving party, the complaint does not contain `enough facts to state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.' Macarthur v. San Juan County, 497 F.3d 1057, 2007 WL 2045456, at m 2007 U.S.App. LEXIS 17008, at  (10th Cir.2007) (quoting Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly, ___ U.S. ___, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 1968-69, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007)). As we have explained this new standard for reviewing a motion to dismiss, the mere metaphysical possibility that some plaintiff could prove some set of facts in support of the pleaded claims is insufficient; the complaint must give the court reason to believe that this plaintiff has a reasonable likelihood of mustering factual support for these claims. Ridge at Red Hawk, L.L.C. v. Schneider, 493 F.3d 1174, 1177 (10th Cir.2007).
Anderson challenges the district court's dismissal of her right to privacy claim for failing to allege state action. To survive as a claim arising under the federal constitution and § 1983, Anderson's right to privacy claim must allege that the media defendants were state actors. Scott v. Hern, 216 F.3d 897, 906 (10th Cir.2000). The Supreme Court has explained that the state action doctrine requires that the constitutional deprivation `be caused by the exercise of some right or privilege created by the State or by a rule of conduct imposed by the state or by a person for whom the State is responsible' and that `the party charged with the deprivation must be a person who may fairly be said to be a state actor.' Johnson v. Rodrigues, 293 F.3d 1196, 1202 (10th Cir.2002) (quoting Lugar v. Edmondson Oil Co., Inc., 457 U.S. 922, 937, 102 S.Ct. 2744, 73 L.Ed.2d 482 (1982)). The Supreme Court has outlined four tests to determine whether private actors, such as the media defendants, should be considered state actors: (1) the public function test, (2) the nexus test, (3) the symbiotic relationship test and (4) the joint action test. Id. at 1202-03. Anderson relies on the joint action test and contends she has satisfied the state action requirement by showing the media defendants acted jointly with Blake, a state actor. Private participants acting jointly with state actors can satisfy the state action requirement if the private party is a willful participant in joint action with the State or its agents. Id. at 1205 (citations and internal quotation marks omitted). We examine whether state officials and private parties have acted in concert in effecting a particular deprivation of constitutional rights. Id. (citations and internal quotation marks omitted). Anderson argues that the facts alleged in her complaint evince such concerted action by claiming that the media defendants and Blake agreed to misuse Blake's authority to obtain access to and ultimately air the confidential videotape. Anderson's allegations are inadequate to support her claim that the media defendants acted jointly with Blake to violate Anderson's right to privacy by airing a confidential videotape. Anderson does not allege that the media defendants knew about the confidentiality agreement between Anderson and Blake protecting the videotape's contents from disclosure. While Anderson asks us to infer such knowledge, she provides no basis for such an inference. Further, Anderson's complaint fails to allege facts demonstrating a shared purpose by Blake and the media defendants to violate Anderson's constitutional rights. At most, the complaint alleges that the parties had their own, separate goals: Blake wanted to appear on camera, and the media defendants wanted exclusive access to the investigation. See Aplt.App. at 23. Indeed, the complaint specifically disavows a shared law enforcement purpose. Id. at 13. Anderson also argues that the media defendants became state actors because they agreed with Blake to receive the leaked portions of the videotape and to air them on the nightly news. Without more, a reporter does not become a state actor, however, simply because she has received and published information from a governmental official, as the media defendants did here. Phelps v. Wichita Eagle-Beacon, 886 F.2d 1262, 1271 (10th Cir. 1989). Although Anderson points to the fact that Blake gave the media defendants exclusive access to the information, this fact only explains how widely Blake disseminated the information  it does not demonstrate concerted action between Blake and the media defendants. In addition, a prior ride-along with police officers in which KOCO employees participated concerned a different case and did not involve any joint action that could potentially violate Anderson's constitutional rights. Finally, Anderson alleges that KOCO, not Blake or any other state actor, retained editorial control over the use of the videotape  indeed, she asserts that the media defendants aired more of the videotape than Blake had wanted. Blake's telephone call to Anderson, on Lohman's behalf, to encourage her to speak with Lohman displays a closer working relationship between Blake and the media defendants than Anderson's other allegations. While this fact may show that Blake and the media defendants acted jointly to secure Anderson's cooperation for an interview, it does not show joint action to violate Anderson's constitutional rights by airing sexually explicit portions of a videotape. In fact, Anderson's complaint alleges that Blake had already permitted the viewing and taping of the videotape by the media defendants prior to the telephone interview because Lohman told Anderson that she had seen the entire video tape. Aplt.App. at 20. Anderson also cites to Berger v. Hanlon, 129 F.3d 505 (9th Cir.1997), vacated and remanded by, 526 U.S. 808, 119 S.Ct. 1706, 143 L.Ed.2d 978 (1999), judgment reinstated by 188 F.3d 1155 (9th Cir.1999), as authority in support of her joint action argument. In that case, the Cable News Network (CNN) filmed federal agents as they executed a search warrant of a Montana ranch. Id. at 508-09. When the rancher sued the CNN team for violating his constitutional rights, the Ninth Circuit concluded that the members of the CNN team participating in the search were state actors. Id. at 514-16. Anderson argues that Berger is support for reaching a similar result in her case because one fact that led the Ninth Circuit to its conclusion was that the federal entities shared confidential information with the media. Id. at 515. While the sharing of confidential information makes Berger and the instant case superficially similar, Berger 's facts suggested a much greater degree of cooperation between government officials and reporters than is present in Anderson's case. The federal agents in Berger planned and executed the search in a manner designed to enhance its entertainment, rather than its law enforcement value, by engaging in, for example, conversations with [the rancher] for the purpose of providing interesting soundbites, and to portray themselves as tough, yet caring investigators, rather than to further their investigation. Id. By these actions, the federal agents became joint participants in shaping the content of CNN's coverage, transforming the CNN team into state actors. The most that Anderson alleges, however, is that Blake allowed the media defendants to film the videotape's contents so that the media defendants, not Blake, could produce a head shot for the evening news. Rather than support Anderson's argument that the media defendants became state actors for purposes of § 1983 because Blake and the media defendants acted in concert, Berger highlights what is missing in this case: facts alleging joint action between Blake and the media defendants in airing the videotape. We therefore agree with the district court's conclusion that Anderson's factual allegations regarding Blake's involvement in the ultimate publication of portions of the videotape by the media defendants were insufficient to treat the media defendants as state actors.
Turning briefly to the district court's dismissal of Anderson's intrusion upon seclusion claim, Anderson provides no support in her opening brief for her contention that the district court erred in dismissing this claim. See Aplt. Opening Br. at 33-35. She cites cases which set forth the elements of an intrusion claim, but fails to tie those cases to the facts of her case. The only other reference to her intrusion claim is in her Statement of the Issues for Review, where she states: The district court erred in dismissing a state claim for intrusion into seclusion because release of the entire rape video to the KOCO defendants was an intentional intrusion into a private matter highly offensive to a reasonable person. . . . The violations of federal privacy and the state intrusion into seclusion were completed when Blake released the video to the KOCO defendants. Id. at 4-5. These arguments are not only untethered to any legal citation, but also are too conclusory to permit judicial review. See Am. Airlines v. Christensen, 967 F.2d 410, 415 n. 8 (10th Cir.1992) (It is insufficient merely to state in one's brief that one is appealing an adverse ruling below without advancing reasoned argument as to the grounds for the appeal. (citing Fed. R.App. P. 28(a)(4))). We therefore decline to address any claimed issue involving the district court's dismissal of Anderson's intrusion upon seclusion claim.