Opinion ID: 1418556
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: advantages of rosenbloom-miller

Text: I turn now to a consideration of the advantages and later the disadvantages of overruling Miller v. Argus Publishing Co., 79 Wn.2d 816, 490 P.2d 101 (1971), and substituting the standard of negligence for the malice standard. The following six advantages of Rosenbloom-Miller may be noticed: 1. The purpose of the New York Times rule is better served by Rosenbloom (ventilation of public issues, Rosenbloom v. Metromedia, Inc., supra at 46) than by the negligence standard for the reasons already discussed. See also Anderson, supra at 422, 446, 451, 453, 459. 2. Rosenbloom avoids the uncertainties which the media faces by virtue of Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc., 418 U.S. 323, 41 L.Ed.2d 789, 94 S.Ct. 2997 (1974). Justice Brennan points out in Gertz at pages 368-69: On the other hand, the uncertainities which the media face under today's decision are largely avoided by the Times standard. I reject the argument that my Rosenbloom view improperly commits to judges the task of determining what is and what is not an issue of general or public interest. I noted in Rosenbloom that performance of this task would not always be easy. Id., at 49 n. 17. But surely the courts, the ultimate arbiters of all disputes concerning clashes of constitutional values, would only be performing one of their traditional functions in undertaking this duty. Also, the difficulty of this task has been substantially lessened by that sizable body of cases, decided both before and after Rosenbloom, that have employed the concept of a matter of public concern to reach decisions in ... cases dealing with an alleged libel of a private individual that employed a public interest standard .. . and ... cases that applied Butts to the alleged libel of a public figure. Comment, The Expanding Constitutional Protection for the News Media from Liability for Defamation: Predictability and the New Synthesis, 70 Mich. L. Rev. 1547, 1560 (1972). The public interest is necessarily broad; any residual self-censorship that may result from the uncertain contours of the general or public interest concept should be of far less concern to publishers and broadcasters than that occasioned by state laws imposing liability for negligent falsehood. (Footnote omitted.) See also Anderson, supra at 429, 459. 3. The Rosenbloom standard fits in best with Washington's fair comment privilege. Washington already precludes recovery by a private person in the case of fair comment upon persons involved in public events, if not malicious. Cohen v. Cowles Publishing Co., 45 Wn.2d 262, 273 P.2d 893 (1954). In that case, the court said at page 264: Persons who present their work or products to the public for its approval and acceptance, thereby subject it to public criticism, and honest comment upon it is privileged. 3 Restatement of the Law of Torts 287, § 609. Of course, a comment cannot be fair if it is made maliciously, but here the complaint did not allege malice. Neither can a comment be fair if it is based on false statements of fact. In W. Prosser, Handbook of the Law of Torts (4th ed. 1971), the author states at page 822: The common law privilege of fair comment in public discussion was not limited to officers and candidates, but extended to other matters of public concern, such as work to be paid for out of public funds, the admission or disbarment of attorneys, and the management of institutions, such as schools, charities, and churches, in which the public has a legitimate interest. Likewise any private enterprise, to the extent that it begins to affect the general interests of the community, as by the distribution of food, the pollution of the water supply, quack medical services, the promotion of race hatred, the employment of a large number of people, or the operation of a railroad, was held to be a proper subject for such privileged comment. No reason is apparent why the Constitutional privilege should not be extended to include all such matters of public concern; and in a few jurisdictions the expansion is already under way. (Footnotes omitted.) 4. Most cases arising under the Rosenbloom rule concern organized crime. The importance of permitting a vigorous and aggressive publication of matters concerned with organized crime is apparent. Comment, The Expanding Constitutional Protection for the News Media from Liability for Defamation: Predictability and the New Synthesis, 70 Mich. L. Rev. 1547, 1561 n. 95 (1972). Moreover, the question may well be asked whether, had there been a negligence standard instead of a malice standard, newspapers would have vigorously pursued the exposure of Watergate. 5. Many states have adopted the Rosenbloom standard, before and since Gertz, and preserving a uniform rule would avoid severe conflicts of law problems. Anderson, supra at 458-60; Pedrick, Freedom of the Press and the Law of Libel: A Modern Revised Translation, 49 Cornell L.Q. 581 (1964); Restatement (Second) Conflict of Laws § 150(1) (1971) (multistate defamation); Lewis v. Reader's Digest Ass'n, 162 Mont. 401, 512 P.2d 702 (1973); W. Prosser, Selected Topics on the Law of Torts 70, at 89, 123-24 (1954). As stated by Prosser: There is, however, the further question of what law is to govern each one of the forty-nine causes of action, or any of the component questions of law which may arise in connection with it; and on this, too, there is no agreement.... In connection with interstate publication, it offers peculiar and baffling difficulties. There are at least ten different and inconsistent theories as to the applicable law, which from time to time have been adopted by some court or suggested by learned writers. (Footnote omitted.) Prosser, supra at 89. All of it weighs heavily upon the publisher, who finds it difficult to plan, utterly impossible to predict the extent of his liability, and expensive to insure.... The result has been, in many cases, an excess of caution and a self-imposed censorship that can operate only as a serious restriction upon the legitimate and desirable freedom of the press. (Footnotes omitted.) Prosser, supra at 123-24. 6. Rosenbloom still leaves room for the private defamation suit. Although the Times malice test is a difficult test to meet, it has been met before and after Gertz, most recently in Walker v. Colorado Springs Sun, Inc., ___ Colo. ___, 538 P.2d 450 (1975). Other cases are cited in Anderson, Libel and Press Self-Censorship, 53 Tex. L. Rev. 422, at 430, 435-38 (1975); H. Nelson & D. Teeter, Law of Mass Communications 123-25, 127 (2d ed. 1973); Stevens, Defamation of Political Figures; Another Look at the Times Sullivan Rule, 27 Fed. Com. B.J. 99, 103 (1974).