Opinion ID: 1355753
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Self-determination of the public interest by the news media

Text: As in this case, a news media defendant would presumably argue in every case that its publication or broadcast was a matter of public interest. Defendants and the news media amici curiae have certainly provided no examples of what they publish that is not a matter of public interest. The practical effect of their view would be that nearly everything they publish would be a matter of public interest and therefore privileged. The news media would have a privilege shared by no other speaker. It can be fairly said that the media themselves often select, by virtue of what they choose to publish, the subjects that become matters of public interest. [T]he decisions they [media executives] make about which stories are worth covering and which are not largely determine what issues emerge on the national agenda for discussion and action by the Congress, the courts, the White House and the body politic. (Shaw, East Coast Bias Colors the Media, L.A. Times (Nov. 17, 1988) pt. 1, p. 1, col. 1; see also Bagdikian, The Media Monopoly (2d ed. 1987) p. 10.) A treatise published by the American Newspaper Publishers Association Foundation states, The bootstrap nature of this extension [of a privilege to everything that is published] contains inherent dangers for individual reputation and would largely do away with recovery for defamation. To a significant extent, the mere act of publishing material in the mass media creates public interest in its contents. The more sensational and hence injurious a statement is, the more `public interest' it generates. Consequently, the more damaging the charge, the more likely it would be privileged even though negligently erroneous. (1 Hanson, Libel and Related Torts (1969) ¶ 141, p. 109; Phillips v. Evening Star Newspaper Co., supra, 424 A.2d at p. 84, fn. 5 [recognizing bootstrap nature of a public-interest privilege]; Miami Herald Pub. Co. v. Ane, supra, 423 So.2d 376, 387, fn. 5 [noting that little in daily newspaper is not a matter of public interest].) [36] The ability to shape public discussion and define the public interest may be a necessary result of the news media's function, but we reject the notion that a news-media defendant should be allowed to determine for practical purposes, by virtue of what it chooses to publish or broadcast, whether its communication is privileged and thus to determine by what standard of fault it will be judged. [37]