Opinion ID: 1190385
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading:  The meaning of the statement in context.

Text: Certain formatseditorials, reviews, political cartoons, monthly featuressignal the average reader to expect a departure from what is actually known by the writer as fact. As explained in another case, [t]he reasonable reader who peruses [a] column on the editorial or Op-Ed page is fully aware that the statements found there are not `hard' news like those printed on the front page or elsewhere in the news sections of the newspaper. Ollman v. Evans, 750 F.2d 970, 986 (D.C.Cir.1984), cert. denied 471 U.S. 1127, 105 S.Ct. 2662, 86 L.Ed.2d 278 (1985). See also Smolla, supra, § 6.12[4], n. 252 (collecting cases). The Hustler article appears under the heading Bits and Pieces and is a regular monthly feature. The tone of the article is pointed, exaggerated and heavily laden with emotional rhetoric invoking first amendment principles. We are convinced that the average reader is fully aware that the statements found there are not hard news. Readers of that column expect that Hustler's writers will make strong opinionated statements in that column, a recognized home of opinion and comment. That proposition is inherent in the very notion of a regularly appearing Bits and Pieces page which is akin to an editorial page.