Court Opinion

ID: 9374773
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-02-23 21:01:02.617286+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:16:52.951008
License: Public Domain

USCA4 Appeal: 22-1207       Doc: 113        Filed: 02/22/2023   Pg: 1 of 44

                                              PUBLISHED

                               UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
                                   FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

                                               No. 22-1198

        DON BLANKENSHIP,

                             Plaintiff – Appellant,

                     v.

        NBCUNIVERSAL, LLC; CNBC, LLC,

                             Defendants – Appellees,

                     and,

        DOES 1 - 50, inclusive,

                             Defendant.

                                               No. 22-1207

        DON BLANKENSHIP,

                             Plaintiff – Appellant,

        FOX      NEWS      NETWORK,      L.L.C.;  CABLE     NEWS    NETWORK,
        INCORPORATED; MSNBC CABLE LLC; WP COMPANY LLC, d/b/a The
        Washington Post; DOES 1-50, inclusive; MEDIAITE, LLC; FISCALNOTE, INC.,
        d/b/a Roll Call; NEWS AND GUTS, LLC; THE CHARLESTON GAZETTE-MAIL;
        AMERICAN BROADCASTING COMPANIES, INC.; TAMAR AUBER;
        GRIFFIN CONNOLLY; ELI LEHRER,

                             Defendants – Appellees,

                             and,
USCA4 Appeal: 22-1207   Doc: 113       Filed: 02/22/2023   Pg: 2 of 44

        HONORABLE ANDREW NAPOLITANO, (Ret.); NATIONAL REPUBLICAN
        SENATORIAL COMMITTEE; ASSOCIATED PRESS; BOSTON GLOBE
        MEDIA PARTNERS, LLC; BREITBART NEWS NETWORK, LLC; CLARITY
        MEDIA GROUP, INC.; THE WASHINGTON TIMES, LLC; TRIBUNE
        PUBLISHING COMPANY, LLC; LOS ANGELES TIMES COMMUNICATIONS,
        LLC; NEIL CAVUTO; CHRIS HAYES; SARAH ELIZABETH CUPP;
        BRADLEY BLAKEMAN;        JOHN     LAYFIELD;     STEPHANIE     HAMILL;
        KEVIN MCLAUGHLIN; LEIGH ANN CALDWELL; MICHAEL PATRICK LEAHY;
        JOSH DAWSEY; JENNA JOHNSON; BEN WOLFGANG; MICHAEL WARREN;
        CATHLEEN DECKER; NBCUNIVERSAL, LLC; CNBC, LLC; DEMOCRATIC
        SENATORIAL CAMPAIGN COMMITTEE; THE NATIONAL JOURNAL
        GROUP, LLC; WATAUGA WATCH; DOWN WITH TYRANNY; NATIONAL
        PUBLIC RADIO, INCORPORATED; THE GUARDIAN NEWS & MEDIA, LLC;
        DOW JONES & COMPANY, INCORPORATED, d/b/a Market Watch;
        UNIVISION COMMUNICATIONS, INCORPORATED, d/b/a Splinter News;
        INTERNATIONAL MEDIA INVESTMENTS FZ, LLC, d/b/a The National; THE
        DAILY BEAST COMPANY LLC; HEARST MAGAZINE MEDIA, INC, d/b/a
        Esquire Magazine; HAYRIDE MEDIA, LLC; NOWTHIS MEDIA, INC.;
        THE UNION LEADER CORPORATION; CAPITOL HILL PUBLISHING, INC,
        d/b/a The Hill; COMMIE GIRL INDUSTRIES, INC., d/b/a Wonkette; DAILY
        MAIL AND GENERAL TRUST PLC; VICE MEDIA, LLC; THE 74 MEDIA, INC.,
        d/b/a The 74 Million; BREAKFAST MEDIA, LLC; THE MCCLATCHY
        COMPANY, d/b/a The Sacramento Bee; OBSERVER MEDIA GROUP, LLC, d/b/a
        The Observer; GARNETT CO. INC., d/b/a York Daily Record; SALEM MEDIA
        GROUP, INC., d/b/a Townhall; VERIZON MEDIA, LLC, d/b/a The Huffington
        Post; JOY ANN LOMENA-REID; ZACK COLMAN; LAUREN PASSALACQUA;
        BEN RAY; DAVID BERGSTEIN; COURTNEY RICE; JUSTIN LAVOIE;
        JOHN KRUSHAAR; HOWIE KLEIN; SUSAN DAVIS; BEN JACOBS;
        DAN RATHER; HOLLY FIGUEROA O’REILLY; JOE LOCKHART;
        J. W. WILLIAMSON; RACHEL KONING BEALS; CHRIS JONES; JIM HEATH;
        NICOLE HENSLEY; PAUL BLEST; RASHMEE ROSHAN LALL;
        GIDEON RESNICK; DANA MILBANK; CHARLES PIERCE; MATT HOWERTON;
        ELIZABETH MCDONALD; ROB PERSEY; JEN KERNS; DAVID MARTOSKO;
        MARTIN       PENGELLY;     MATT     TAYLOR;      KEVIN      MAHNKEN;
        ANDREW FEINBERG; JOHN RABY; BEN BOYCHUK; AMBER PHILLIPS;
        BRIAN SCHWARTZ; MICHELANGELO SIGNORILE; BRUCE BIALOSKY;
        MIKE ARGENTO; DAVIS RICHARDSON; MARKETWATCH, INC.; 35TH INC.,

                         Defendants.

                                              2
USCA4 Appeal: 22-1207      Doc: 113         Filed: 02/22/2023      Pg: 3 of 44

                                               No. 22-1326

        DON BLANKENSHIP,

                             Plaintiff – Appellant,

                      v.

        BOSTON GLOBE MEDIA PARTNERS, LLC; d/b/a The Boston Globe; DOES 1 -
        50, inclusive,

                             Defendants – Appellees.

        Appeals from the United States District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia, at
        Charleston. John T. Copenhaver, Jr., Senior District Judge. (2:20-cv-00278; 2:19-cv-00236;
        2:19-cv-00589)

        Argued: December 7, 2022                                      Decided: February 22, 2023

        Before GREGORY, Chief Judge, NIEMEYER, Circuit Judge, and Patricia Tolliver GILES,
        District Judge for the Eastern District of Virginia, sitting by designation.

        Affirmed by published opinion. Chief Judge Gregory wrote the opinion, in which
        Judge Niemeyer and Judge Giles joined.

        ARGUED: Eric Peter Early, EARLY SULLIVAN WRIGHT GIZER & MCRAE LLP,
        Los Angeles, California, for Appellant. Kevin Taylor Baine, WILLIAMS & CONNOLLY
        LLP, Washington, D.C., for Appellee. ON BRIEF: Jeremy J.F. Gray, Lisa M. Zepeda,
        Padideh Zargari, EARLY SULLIVAN WRIGHT GIZER & MCRAE LLP, Los Angeles,
        California; Jeffrey S. Simpkins, SIMPKINS LAW, Williamson, West Virginia, for
        Appellant. Stephen J. Fuzesi, Gloria K. Maier, Matthew D. Heins, Katelyn R. Adams,
        WILLIAMS & CONNOLLY LLP, Washington, D.C., for Appellees American
        Broadcasting Companies, Inc.; Cable News Network, Inc.; Fox News Network LLC;
        MSNBC Cable, LLC; WP Company LLC; CNBC, LLC; and NBCUniversal, LLC.
        Kelli L. Sager, Los Angeles, California, Eric Feder, DAVIS WRIGHT TREMAINE LLP,

                                                      3
USCA4 Appeal: 22-1207    Doc: 113       Filed: 02/22/2023   Pg: 4 of 44

        Washington, D.C., for Appellee American Broadcasting, Inc. Elbert Lin, HUNTON
        ANDREWS KURTH LLP, Richmond, Virginia, for Appellee Fox News Network LLC.
        Jared M. Tully, Mary Claire Davis, Charleston, West Virginia, Ryan W. Goellner,
        Cincinnati, Ohio, Kevin T. Shook, FROST BROWN TODD LLC, Columbus, Ohio, for
        Appellees MSNBC Cable, LLC; CNBC, LLC; and NBCUniversal, LLC. Lonnie C. Simmons,
        DIPIERO SIMMONS MCGINLEY & BASTRESS, PLLC, Charleston, West Virginia, for
        Appellees Mediaite, LLC and Tamar Auber. Robert M. Bastress, III, DIPIERO
        SIMMONS MCGINLEY & BASTRESS, PLLC, Charleston, West Virginia, for Appellee
        The Charleston Gazette-Mail. Jennifer S. Jackman, WHITEFORD, TAYLOR &
        PRESTON, LLP, Washington, D.C., for Appellee Eli Lehrer. Allen M. Gardner,
        LATHAM & WATKINS LLP, Washington, D.C., for Appellees Fiscal Note, Inc. and
        Griffin Connolly. Chris Vlahos, Jenna Harris, RITHOLZ LEVY FIELDS, LLP, Nashville,
        Tennessee; William D. Wilmoth, STEPTOE & JOHNSON, PLC, Wheeling, West
        Virginia, for Appellee News and Guts, LLC.

        ARGUED: Eric Peter Early, EARLY SULLIVAN WRIGHT GIZER & MCRAE LLP,
        Los Angeles, California, for Appellant. Jonathan M. Albano, MORGAN LEWIS &
        BOCKIUS, LLP, Boston, Massachusetts, for Appellees. ON BRIEF: Jeremy J.F. Gray,
        Lisa M. Zepeda, Padideh Zargari, EARLY SULLIVAN WRIGHT GIZER & MCRAE
        LLP, Los Angeles, California; Jeffrey S. Simpkins, SIMPKINS LAW OFFICE PLLC,
        Williamson, West Virginia, for Appellant. Andrew M. Buttaro, MORGAN, LEWIS &
        BOCKIUS LLP, Boston, Massachusetts; David K. Henderson, Barbara A. Samples,
        HENDRICKSON & LONG, PLLC, Charleston, West Virginia, for Appellees.

                                                4
USCA4 Appeal: 22-1207      Doc: 113         Filed: 02/22/2023      Pg: 5 of 44

        GREGORY, Chief Judge:

               Following an unsuccessful campaign for one of West Virginia’s U.S. Senate seats,

        Don Blankenship sued numerous media organizations and individual journalists, alleging

        defamation, false light invasion of privacy, and civil conspiracy. Blankenship’s claims

        arise from misstatements of his criminal record: he was convicted and served one year in

        prison for a federal conspiracy offense that is classified as a misdemeanor, but Defendants

        made statements describing him as a “felon.”

               Most of the parties Blankenship initially named as Defendants were dismissed early

        in the litigation, and the sixteen Defendants who remained moved for summary judgment

        in their respective cases. The district court granted summary judgment to all sixteen

        Defendants after concluding they did not make the statements with actual malice. Those

        cases are now before us via two appeals: a consolidated appeal from the district court’s

        decisions granting summary judgment to fifteen Defendants, and a separate appeal from

        the district court’s grant of summary judgment to the Boston Globe. Although we heard

        oral argument on the appeals in seriatim, we consolidate the cases into this single opinion.

        Finding no error, we affirm.

                                                     I.

                                                    A.

               Don Blankenship previously served as the CEO of Massey Energy Company, a large

        coal producer. During his tenure as CEO, a 2010 explosion at one of Massey Energy’s

        mines in West Virginia, the Upper Big Branch Mine, killed twenty-nine miners.

                                                     5
USCA4 Appeal: 22-1207      Doc: 113          Filed: 02/22/2023     Pg: 6 of 44

        Blankenship was indicted on several federal charges in the wake of the Upper Big Branch

        Mine disaster, including multiple felony counts. A jury ultimately convicted him of

        conspiracy to violate federal mine safety laws and regulations, a Class A misdemeanor, but

        acquitted him of the felony charges. See United States v. Blankenship, 846 F.3d 663, 666–

        67 (4th Cir. 2017) (affirming conviction), cert. denied, 138 S. Ct. 315 (2017). Blankenship

        was sentenced to one year in federal prison (the statutory maximum), with another year of

        supervised release, and was fined $250,000. He served his sentence at the Taft Correctional

        Institution in California; of the approximately 2,400 inmates in the prison, Blankenship

        maintains he was the only one who was not serving a sentence for a felony conviction.

        Blankenship was released from prison in 2017.

               In January 2018, while still on supervised release, Blankenship announced his plans to

        run for the U.S. Senate in West Virginia. As a candidate in the Republican primary, he

        attracted public attention for comments he made about Senator Mitch McConnell and then-

        Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao. Then-President Trump, Senator McConnell, and

        other prominent Republicans publicly criticized Blankenship and urged West Virginians

        to support another candidate in the May 8 primary election. Blankenship ultimately lost

        the primary election, finishing in third place. He later tried to run in the general election

        as the Constitution Party candidate but was unable to get on the ballot.

               During Blankenship’s Senate campaign, numerous media organizations and

        journalists broadcast or published statements that referred to him as a “felon” or “convicted

        felon,” even though Blankenship’s conviction was classified as a misdemeanor.

        Defendants are sixteen of those organizations and individuals: Fox News, MSNBC, CNN, the

                                                     6
USCA4 Appeal: 22-1207      Doc: 113          Filed: 02/22/2023     Pg: 7 of 44

        Washington Post, ABC, News & Guts, Eli Lehrer, Mediaite, Tamar Auber, Griffin Connolly,

        FiscalNote, HD Media, NBCUniversal, CNBC, 35th PAC, and the Boston Globe.

        Although Defendants’ references to Blankenship’s criminal history closely resemble one

        another, we must consider the facts surrounding each individual statement in turn.

                                                     1.

               Fox News broadcast several statements that referred to Blankenship as a felon or

        otherwise misstated his criminal record. First, during an April 25, 2018 appearance on Fox

        News’s Outnumbered program, Andrew Napolitano, a Senior Judicial Analyst for the

        network, remarked that Blankenship “went to jail for Manslaughter after people died in a

        mine accident.” J.A. 3878. 1 Later that day, Blankenship’s campaign contacted Fox News

        and demanded a correction because Blankenship had been convicted of conspiracy to

        violate federal mine safety laws and regulations, not manslaughter. Upon learning of his

        mistake, Napolitano expressed a desire to appear on the network to set the record straight.

        On April 30, his producer emailed producers of multiple Fox News programs to ask if

        Napolitano could discuss the details of Blankenship’s conviction, including one specific

        request to correct the record, but the producers of those shows were interested in different

        topics and did not grant his requests.

               On May 3, Antonia Ferrier—an aide to Senator McConnell—emailed

        Martha MacCallum, the host of Fox News’s The Story with Martha MacCallum. Ferrier

               1
                  Citations to the “J.A.” refer to the Joint Appendix filed by the parties in the
        consolidated appeal. Citations to the “G.J.A.” refer to the Joint Appendix filed by the
        parties in the separate Boston Globe appeal.
                                                     7
USCA4 Appeal: 22-1207       Doc: 113          Filed: 02/22/2023      Pg: 8 of 44

        wrote that McConnell was “pretty ticked” about Blankenship making public comments

        attacking Chao, McConnell’s wife. J.A. 3928. On May 4, Fox News contributors

        Karl Rove and Tammy Bruce appeared on The Story and criticized Blankenship, but did

        not mischaracterize his conviction. The next day, McConnell emailed Rove and thanked

        him for his “comments on Martha’s show last night.” J.A. 3806.

               On May 6, Fox News Chairman Rupert Murdoch emailed two senior executives at

        the network, writing: “Both Trump and McConnell appealing for help to beat unelectable

        former mine owner who served time. Anything during day helpful but Sean and Laura

        dumping on him hard might save the day.” 2 J.A. 4052. Earlier that day, Murdoch had

        received an email stating that “convicted felon” Don Blankenship was “surging in the GOP

        primary polling,” J.A. 4050, but Murdoch did not repeat the “convicted felon” language in

        his email to the two executives.

               On May 7, anchor Neil Cavuto discussed Blankenship during a telecast of his Fox

        News show Cavuto Coast to Coast. Returning from a commercial break, Cavuto opened:

        “The president warning Republicans, you know what, we’re going to lose West Virginia if

        Don Blankenship is allowed to win the primary and he does win the primary. Don Blankenship,

        of course, is arguing that he’s the best qualified for this. Of course, he’s a convicted felon.”

        J.A. 3466. A couple weeks earlier, on April 25, Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy had

        appeared alongside Cavuto on the show Your World with Neil Cavuto and noted that

               2
                 We understand that Murdoch was referring to Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham,
        who anchored evening programs on Fox News at the time. Blankenship does not allege
        that either Hannity or Ingraham ever defamed him.
                                                       8
USCA4 Appeal: 22-1207      Doc: 113         Filed: 02/22/2023     Pg: 9 of 44

        Blankenship “recently served a year in jail on a misdemeanor conviction tied to his role in

        a mine collapse that killed 29 people.” J.A. 3861–62. In addition, on May 2, Cavuto had

        received a ten-page briefing packet about the 2018 primary elections that described

        Blankenship as seeking “vindication for his 2015 conviction on a misdemeanor charge

        related to the Upper Big Branch Mine explosion that killed 29 miners.” J.A. 3867.

              Between May 7 and May 9, four other Fox commentators also referred to

        Blankenship as a “felon” or “convicted felon” on air. During the May 7 broadcast of The

        Evening Edit on Fox Business Network, John Layfield described Blankenship as a “felon

        who’s got a probation officer, who could end up in Congress.” J.A. 3567. Bradley Blakeman

        also called Blankenship a “felon” during that same show. J.A. 3564. On the May 7

        broadcast of Fox Business Network’s Making Money, Stephanie Hamill referred to

        Blankenship as a “convicted felon.” J.A. 3570. And on May 9, the day after the West

        Virginia Senate primary, Elizabeth MacDonald called Blankenship a “felon” on The

        Evening Edit. J.A. 3573.

              On May 22, two weeks after the primary election, Cavuto interviewed Blankenship

        on air during Your World. The interview included the following exchange:

              BLANKENSHIP: And it’s very disappointing that the news media and this
              network as well continues to tell people I’m a felon, which—I’ve never been
              convicted of a felony. I’m probably less likely to be a felon than anyone,
              given that I was investigated for four and a half years and they couldn’t find
              anything.

              CAVUTO: So what are you if you’ve served time in jail?

              BLANKENSHIP: A misdemeanor [sic]. The only misdemeanor to serve
              time at a felon prison in California. So I think that should tell us something

                                                    9
USCA4 Appeal: 22-1207      Doc: 113          Filed: 02/22/2023     Pg: 10 of 44

               as well when they’re sending misdemeanors to prison so they can’t continue
               to communicate for a year is—is pretty telling.

               CAVUTO: You know, there are those who would disagree with that
               portrayal, sir. Saying that it’s a little bit bigger than a misdemeanor when 29
               people are killed in a mining accident in 2010 for which you—or your
               company, more to the point, was held accountable for violating safety
               standards and the rest. You don’t agree with that, and obviously you felt that
               way afterwards. But that would be a little more than a misdemeanor, right?

        J.A. 3552–53, 5671. Immediately after the interview, Napolitano appeared on Your World.

        He told Cavuto: “Let me say first that Don Blankenship is correct. I once inadvertently

        said on air that he was a convicted felon. 3 He was not. He was acquitted of the charges,

        the felony charges against him. The only thing he was convicted of was a misdemeanor.”

        J.A. 5669. Cavuto responded, “So, just serving a year in jail doesn’t make you a convicted

        felon?” Id. Napolitano replied, “That’s correct.” J.A. 5670.

                                                     2.

               The record shows that two MSNBC anchors—Joy Reid and Chris Hayes—referred to

        Blankenship as a “convicted felon.” Reid made such a statement while she was guest-hosting

        the show All In with Chris Hayes on May 4, 2018. For his part, Hayes described Blankenship

        as a “convicted felon” during the April 23 and May 9, 2018 broadcasts of All In. Hayes also

        posted a tweet to his personal Twitter account on April 16, 2018, that called Blankenship “a

        felonious coal baron found responsible for dozens of miners’ deaths.” J.A. 811.

               3
                There is no evidence that Napolitano ever called Blankenship a “convicted felon”
        on air. The only misstatement by Napolitano in the record is his April 25 remark that
        Blankenship was convicted of manslaughter. That appears to be the statement Napolitano
        was referring to when speaking to Cavuto on May 22.
                                                     10
USCA4 Appeal: 22-1207      Doc: 113         Filed: 02/22/2023    Pg: 11 of 44

              Hayes had some familiarity with Blankenship prior to 2018. He interviewed

        Blankenship in 2014, and he exchanged emails about Blankenship with members of the All

        In staff in 2015 and 2016. In December 2015, Denis Horgan, All In’s executive producer,

        sent Hayes and other staff members a New York Times article that reported on

        Blankenship’s conviction. Hayes replied: “He only got nailed on the misdemeanor, tho.

        Probably not a day in jail.” J.A. 845. That email exchange predated Blankenship’s

        sentencing. Later, in an April 2016 email to Hayes and other All In staff, producer

        Brendan O’Melia wrote that “[o]ur old friend Don Blankenship [is] going to the cooler for

        a year.” J.A. 903. Hayes also discussed Blankenship during the November 29, 2017

        telecast of All In. During that show, All In displayed as on-screen graphics the headlines

        of two articles about Blankenship. The bodies of those articles—but not the headlines—

        briefly noted that he was convicted of a misdemeanor offense. Hayes apparently did not

        mention Blankenship’s criminal record during the November 29 show.

              In a recorded off-air conversation on April 23, 2018—hours before Hayes’s first on-

        air statement calling Blankenship a felon—Hayes and All In producer Brian Montopoli

        discussed plans for a segment of that night’s show. Montopoli suggested discussing “our

        old buddy Don Blankenship’s ad,” in which Blankenship made calls to arrest and imprison

        Hillary Clinton. J.A. 492. In response, Hayes remarked, “[T]hat is, like, convicted felon

        . . . Don Blankenship . . . the man who was found, you know, to have criminally violated

        the law in the mine that he owned that killed, you know, all those miners.” Id. Montopoli

        replied, “Yeah.” Id.

                                                   11
USCA4 Appeal: 22-1207       Doc: 113          Filed: 02/22/2023        Pg: 12 of 44

               On May 10, 2018, one day after Hayes’s second on-air reference to Blankenship as a

        “convicted felon,” an MSNBC viewer emailed Hayes and stated: “You mentioned that

        Blankenship was a Felon on your [show]. Unfortunately it was a misdemeanor[.] Go figure!”

        J.A. 847. Hayes replied, “yes! Caught that after the show, but you’re r[i]ght.” Id. There is no

        evidence in the record that Hayes, Reid, or others at MSNBC publicly corrected the “felon”

        statements, or that Blankenship ever contacted the network to request a correction.

                                                      3.

               Blankenship points to four occasions where CNN commentators made similar

        statements during television broadcasts. The first occurred during the April 29, 2018

        broadcast of CNN Newsroom. While discussing the West Virginia Senate primary, host

        Dana Bash told the audience that Blankenship “reminds us [his conviction] was just a

        misdemeanor.” J.A. 1383. However, a few minutes later, commentator Kevin McLaughlin

        referred to Blankenship as a “convicted felon.”         J.A.    1386.   Bash did not correct

        McLaughlin’s statement on air.

               S.E. Cupp, the host of the CNN show S.E. Cupp Unfiltered, called Blankenship a

        “felon” on two different occasions. First, on May 2, 2018, Unfiltered played a clip of

        Blankenship speaking during a West Virginia debate, which showed him saying, “I’ve had

        a little personal experience with the Department of Justice; they lie a lot too.” J.A. 1458.

        After the clip played, Cupp reacted by saying, “that’s because you’re a convict, you’re a

        felon. Oh my God.” Id. Then, on the May 8 telecast of Unfiltered, Cupp remarked, “In

        case you missed it, a former coal baron and convicted felon is running for Senate in West

                                                      12
USCA4 Appeal: 22-1207      Doc: 113          Filed: 02/22/2023     Pg: 13 of 44

        Virginia.” J.A. 1469. Lastly, CNN commentator Joe Lockhart referred to Blankenship as

        a “convicted felon” during the May 7 broadcast of CNN Tonight. J.A. 1428.

               There is no evidence in the record that Blankenship contacted CNN to request

        corrections for any of these statements, or that CNN issued a correction.

                                                     4.

               Blankenship takes issue with statements in two stories published by the Washington

        Post. On July 25, 2018, the Washington Post published an online article about Republican

        primary candidates, written by reporters Jenna Johnson and Josh Dawsey, which described

        Blankenship as “a former coal mine owner and felon.” J.A. 2051. The same article

        appeared in the Post’s print edition two days later. The record indicates that Dawsey

        neither wrote nor reviewed the part of the article that contained this language.

               A couple weeks later, on August 9, the Washington Post published a blog post by

        Amber Phillips that identified Blankenship as one of three “convicted felons” who ran for

        office in 2018. J.A. 2079. In an earlier story published on May 1, 2018, Phillips had

        reported that Blankenship “just finished a year in prison after an explosion at one of his

        mines killed 29 people” and that he “was convicted on a misdemeanor for conspiring to

        violate mine safety laws.” J.A. 2298. Between May 2 and May 6, Phillips also received

        three mass-distribution emails that referred to Blankenship’s conviction as a misdemeanor.

        These emails contained detailed updates and commentary on the West Virginia primary

        and other political topics, and they made only passing references to Blankenship’s

        conviction. One of the three included the transcript for an entire episode of Face the

        Nation, a weekly political news program on CBS.

                                                     13
USCA4 Appeal: 22-1207      Doc: 113         Filed: 02/22/2023    Pg: 14 of 44

               There is no record evidence that Blankenship ever contacted the Washington Post

        to request a correction. The Post issued corrections to both stories after learning of

        Blankenship’s lawsuit in 2019.

                                                    5.

               Blankenship’s claims against ABC revolve around a single story. On July 23, 2018,

        ABC published an article by reporter John Verhovek that discussed Blankenship’s

        intentions to run for the Senate as a third-party candidate after he lost the Republican

        primary. The article referred to Blankenship as “the former coal baron and convicted

        felon” and explained that he “was convicted in 2015 for conspiracy to violate mine safety

        and health standards in the aftermath of the 2010 Upper Big Branch Mine disaster that

        resulted in the death of 29 miners.” J.A. 2576. ABC posted links to the article on Twitter

        and Facebook with descriptions that repeated the “convicted felon” language, and it used

        the same language in a description of the article in a daily politics email newsletter ABC

        distributed on July 24.

               Verhovek had reported on or discussed Blankenship’s criminal history on a few

        earlier occasions. In a March 29, 2018 email to a colleague, Verhovek similarly referred

        to Blankenship as a “convicted felon.” J.A. 2577. However, in early May, Verhovek had

        authored or co-authored three articles for ABC which noted that Blankenship was

        convicted of a misdemeanor. Also in early May, Verhovek had received multiple emails

        from his ABC colleague Meridith McGraw that provided updates on the West Virginia

        primary campaign. The emails, which McGraw sent to an internal email distribution list,

                                                   14
USCA4 Appeal: 22-1207      Doc: 113          Filed: 02/22/2023      Pg: 15 of 44

        made passing references to Blankenship’s conviction on a misdemeanor offense. The

        distribution list received dozens of similar political updates each day.

               Blankenship’s campaign contacted McGraw to request a correction almost

        immediately after ABC published the July 23 article. In a text to Verhovek, McGraw

        explained, “Don Blankenship is not a convicted felon.           He was found guilty of a

        misdemeanor charge. . . . It’s confusing because he was sent to a federal prison for his

        misdemeanor charge. We should correct it!” J.A. 2736. Verhovek responded, “Meridith

        can you send me exact language on this? Blankenship was sent to federal prison but he

        was not convicted of a felony?” J.A. 2735. Verhovek later apologized to McGraw for the

        mistake, writing: “Sorry about Blankenship, I thought I had it right on that or [had] seen it

        in an earlier story, that’s my bad.” J.A. 2812.

                                                     6.

               On appeal, Blankenship devotes almost no attention to the remaining ten Defendants

        in the consolidated action:      News & Guts, Eli Lehrer, Mediaite, Tamar Auber,

        Griffin Connolly, FiscalNote, HD Media, NBCUniversal, CNBC, and 35th PAC. Like the

        others, these Defendants published articles during the 2018 Senate campaign cycle that

        described Blankenship as a “felon” or “convicted felon.”

                                                     7.

               Lastly, Blankenship’s claims against the Boston Globe focus on a single published

        article. The Globe had an agreement with the Associated Press (“AP”) that allowed it to

        republish AP wire stories. On May 21, 2018, the AP distributed a wire story written by

        John Raby that discussed Blankenship’s possible third-party candidacy in the general

                                                     15
USCA4 Appeal: 22-1207      Doc: 113          Filed: 02/22/2023     Pg: 16 of 44

        election.   Raby’s story referred to Blankenship as a “convicted ex-coal baron” and

        explained that he “spent a year in federal prison for violating safety regulations in a 2010

        mine explosion that killed 29 miners.” G.J.A. 356–59.

               The Globe published a condensed version of the AP story on May 22. While editing

        the original story, a Globe copy editor named Daniel Coleman changed the phrase

        “convicted ex-coal baron” to “convicted felon and former coal baron” and removed the

        description of Blankenship’s prison sentence. G.J.A. 346. The Globe had previously

        published three articles which correctly reported that Blankenship was convicted of a

        misdemeanor but acquitted of felony charges. Those articles are dated December 5, 2015,

        April 7, 2016, and May 8, 2018.

               After Blankenship filed this lawsuit, the Globe published a correction clarifying that

        Blankenship’s conviction was a misdemeanor.

                                                     B.

                                                     1.

               In March 2019, Blankenship brought a diversity action in the federal district court

        against more than 100 media organizations, political action committees, and individuals.

        He alleged claims for defamation, false light invasion of privacy, and civil conspiracy

        under West Virginia law, arguing that Defendants’ descriptions of him as a felon were

        false, were made with actual malice, and caused him injury by damaging his reputation and

        contributing to his defeat in the 2018 primary. Blankenship voluntarily dismissed several

        original Defendants. In March 2020, the district court dismissed his claims against many

        more Defendants (including most individual journalists and commentators) for lack of

                                                     16
USCA4 Appeal: 22-1207      Doc: 113          Filed: 02/22/2023      Pg: 17 of 44

        personal jurisdiction, and dismissed his claims against NBCUniversal and CNBC without

        prejudice for insufficient service of process. However, the court denied the remaining

        Defendants’ Rule 12(b)(6) motions to dismiss. Shortly thereafter, Blankenship refiled a

        separate action against NBCUniversal and CNBC. The district court adjudicated both

        cases in tandem.

               The parties conducted extensive discovery, during which Blankenship deposed

        numerous journalists and other employees affiliated with the organizational Defendants.

        Nearly all the journalists who made the challenged statements submitted declarations or

        were deposed, and while the precise contours of their testimony varied, all who provided

        such testimony asserted that they did not realize their descriptions of Blankenship as a felon

        were inaccurate at the time. After discovery concluded, the remaining fifteen Defendants

        moved for summary judgment.

               In three different opinions issued in February 2022, the district court granted

        summary judgment to all fifteen Defendants. As to Blankenship’s defamation claims, it

        first concluded that the Defendants’ statements were materially false because they were

        “based on a provably false assertion of fact,” and that they constituted defamation per se

        because they falsely attributed a felony offense to Blankenship that “carries significantly

        greater legal consequences than a misdemeanor.” J.A. 5640 (cleaned up); see J.A. 5689,

        5764. But after an extensive analysis of the record, it determined that Blankenship failed

        to offer sufficient evidence of actual malice to survive summary judgment.

               Because Blankenship’s false light invasion of privacy and civil conspiracy claims

        also required him to prove actual malice, the district court granted the Defendants summary

                                                     17
USCA4 Appeal: 22-1207      Doc: 113          Filed: 02/22/2023     Pg: 18 of 44

        judgment on those claims as well. Blankenship timely appealed the decisions, which were

        consolidated in a single appeal.

                                                     2.

               Blankenship filed a separate action against the Boston Globe in West Virginia state

        court, alleging defamation and false light invasion of privacy (but not civil conspiracy).

        The Globe removed the case to the district court based on diversity of citizenship.

        Following discovery, the Globe moved for summary judgment. As it did in the related

        cases, the district court granted summary judgment to the Globe after concluding

        Blankenship failed to show that the Globe acted with actual malice when publishing the

        inaccurate statement. Blankenship timely appealed.

                                                     II.

               This Court reviews de novo a district court’s decision to grant summary judgment.

        Ballengee v. CBS Broad., Inc., 968 F.3d 344, 349 (4th Cir. 2020). At the summary

        judgment stage, we view all facts and make all reasonable inferences in favor of the

        nonmoving party. Id. “Summary judgment is warranted ‘if the movant shows that there is

        no genuine dispute as to any material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter

        of law.’” Id. (quoting Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(a)). “Facts are material when they might affect

        the outcome of the case, and a genuine issue exists when the evidence would allow a

        reasonable jury to return a verdict for the nonmoving party.” News & Observer Publ’g Co.

        v. Raleigh-Durham Airport Auth., 597 F.3d 570, 576 (4th Cir. 2010) (internal quotation

        marks omitted). A party is entitled to summary judgment when “the nonmoving party has

                                                     18
USCA4 Appeal: 22-1207      Doc: 113         Filed: 02/22/2023      Pg: 19 of 44

        failed to make a sufficient showing on an essential element of [his] case with respect to

        which [he] has the burden of proof.” Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 323 (1986).

                                                     III.

                                                     A.

               We start with Blankenship’s defamation claims, which, like his other claims, rely

        on West Virginia law. To prevail in a defamation action in West Virginia, 4 a public-figure

        plaintiff like Blankenship must establish that the statements (1) contain a provably false

        assertion of fact and (2) were published with actual malice. Pritt v. Republican Nat’l

        Comm., 557 S.E.2d 853, 861–62 (W. Va. 2001). 5 A plaintiff must prove actual malice by

        clear and convincing evidence. Id. at 862.

               At the outset, Defendants argue that we can affirm the district court’s decisions on

        the alternative ground that none of the challenged statements were actionably false. The

        district court, of course, reached the opposite conclusion. But Defendants contend that a

        “felony” is often understood to refer colloquially to serious crimes, and that there is no

        question Blankenship’s conviction and sentence were serious. See Masson v. New Yorker

               4
                 Technically, Blankenship’s claims involving written statements constitute libel
        claims, but the relevant elements for both actions are identical. See Greenfield v. Schmidt
        Baking Co., 485 S.E.2d 391, 393–94 (W. Va. 1997). For simplicity, we follow the parties’
        approach and use the term “defamation” to refer to all claims.
               5
                 In defamation cases involving plaintiffs who are candidates for public office, West
        Virginia law appears to additionally require that the defendant intended to injure the
        plaintiff by publishing the statement. See Pritt, 557 S.E.2d at 861. Defendants argue that
        Blankenship also failed to present sufficient evidence of an intent to injure. Because we
        conclude that Blankenship failed to create a jury question that any Defendant acted with
        actual malice, we do not need to address the intent-to-injure element.
                                                     19
USCA4 Appeal: 22-1207      Doc: 113         Filed: 02/22/2023      Pg: 20 of 44

        Mag., Inc., 501 U.S. 496, 516–17 (1991) (explaining that falsity turns on “the substance,

        the gist, the sting” of the words the defendant used). Here, we will simply assume that

        Defendants’ statements satisfy the falsity element because we can instead resolve

        Blankenship’s claims based on the actual malice element.

               West Virginia’s actual malice standard comports with First Amendment limitations

        on state defamation law, as articulated by the Supreme Court in N.Y. Times Co. v. Sullivan,

        376 U.S. 254 (1964), and its progeny. See Havalunch, Inc. v. Mazza, 294 S.E.2d 70, 73

        (W. Va. 1983). To prove actual malice, Blankenship must show that Defendants made

        each statement “with knowledge that it was false or with reckless disregard of whether it

        was false or not.” N.Y. Times, 376 U.S. at 279–80. Reckless disregard exists where “the

        defendant in fact entertained serious doubts as to the truth of its publication” but

        nonetheless published it. St. Amant v. Thompson, 390 U.S. 727, 731 (1968). In other

        words, the defendant must have had at least “a high degree of awareness of . . . probable

        falsity.” Harte-Hanks Commc’ns, Inc. v. Connaughton, 491 U.S. 657, 692 (1989).

               On summary judgment, we must apply the clear and convincing evidence standard

        when determining whether Blankenship has created a genuine issue of actual malice. To

        this end, we ask “whether the evidence presented is such that a reasonable jury might find

        that actual malice ha[s] been shown with convincing clarity.” Anderson v. Liberty Lobby,

        Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 257 (1986). Whether the evidence in the record is sufficient to permit

        such a finding is a question of law. Harte-Hanks, 491 U.S. at 685. We have explained that

        creating a jury question on actual malice “is no easy task.” Carr v. Forbes, Inc., 259 F.3d

        273, 282 (4th Cir. 2001).     To survive summary judgment, Blankenship must offer

                                                    20
USCA4 Appeal: 22-1207      Doc: 113            Filed: 02/22/2023    Pg: 21 of 44

        “concrete” and “affirmative evidence” of actual malice, Liberty Lobby, 477 U.S. at 256–

        57, and that evidence must produce an “abiding conviction” that actual malice is “highly

        probable,” Cannon v. Peck, 36 F.4th 547, 566 (4th Cir. 2022).                On appeal, we

        independently review the entire record to determine whether Blankenship has made this

        showing. Harte-Hanks, 491 U.S. at 688; Carr, 259 F.3d at 283.

                                                      B.

               Blankenship argues that the district court made a few recurring errors in its summary

        judgment decisions.     In his view, the court erred by making improper credibility

        determinations, drawing inferences in favor of Defendants rather than Blankenship, and failing

        to consider the entire record when evaluating his defamation claims.          However, after

        independently reviewing the full record, we conclude the district court correctly held that

        Blankenship has not presented sufficient evidence that any Defendant acted with actual malice.

                                                      1.

               On appeal, Blankenship devotes the most attention to his defamation claims against

        Fox News, so we begin there. As an initial matter, Blankenship no longer challenges

        Andrew Napolitano’s statement that Blankenship went to jail for manslaughter. Instead,

        Blankenship focuses on the inaccurate on-air statements made by Neil Cavuto and four

        other Fox News commentators in the days leading up to the West Virginia primary. We

        conclude that the record evidence would not permit a reasonable jury to find, by clear and

        convincing evidence, that these commentators or any other Fox News employees made

        these statements with actual malice.

                                                      21
USCA4 Appeal: 22-1207       Doc: 113          Filed: 02/22/2023     Pg: 22 of 44

                                                      a.

               Cavuto referred to Blankenship as a “convicted felon” once, during the May 7, 2018

        broadcast of his show Cavuto Coast to Coast. In a deposition, Cavuto testified that he did

        not realize this statement was inaccurate at the time, explaining: “It was incorrect, but it

        was inadvertent. I did not know there was a distinction between going to jail over a felony

        or going to jail over a misdemeanor, just that he went to jail for a year.” J.A. 3556. At the

        summary judgment stage, we do not credit Cavuto’s self-serving testimony about his state

        of mind over contrary evidence. See Liberty Lobby, 477 U.S. at 255. At the same time,

        though, Blankenship cannot avoid summary judgment “by merely asserting that the jury

        might, and legally could, disbelieve the defendant’s denial of . . . legal malice.” Id. at 256.

        Rather, the question is whether Blankenship has offered enough concrete evidence to

        permit a jury to find, by clear and convincing evidence, that Cavuto acted with actual

        malice. He has not.

               Blankenship highlights two parts of the record that he claims create a genuine

        dispute of fact as to actual malice. The first is the April 25, 2018 episode of Your World

        with Neil Cavuto, where Peter Doocy, in Cavuto’s presence, noted that Blankenship

        “recently served a year in jail on a misdemeanor conviction tied to his role in a mine

        collapse that killed 29 people.” J.A. 3861–62. According to Blankenship, this shows

        Cavuto knew it was false to use the term “convicted felon” roughly two weeks later. The

        second piece of evidence is the briefing packet Cavuto received on May 2, 2018, which

        mentioned Blankenship’s “2015 conviction on a misdemeanor charge related to the Upper

        Big Branch Mine explosion that killed 29 miners.” J.A. 3867.

                                                      22
USCA4 Appeal: 22-1207       Doc: 113          Filed: 02/22/2023      Pg: 23 of 44

               Although a jury could infer that Cavuto processed Doocy’s remark and committed

        the detail to memory, that inference is somewhat tenuous. Doocy’s reference to the

        misdemeanor conviction was a single, brief comment during an hourlong show that

        covered several different political topics. From that one comment, it would be a stretch to

        infer that Cavuto, two weeks later, “in fact entertained serious doubts” that Blankenship

        was a felon. St. Amant, 390 U.S. at 731. The note on Blankenship’s misdemeanor

        conviction in the May 2 briefing packet—a single, passing reference in ten pages of

        material on various 2018 primary campaigns—is even more tenuous evidence of Cavuto’s

        knowledge on May 7. Cavuto testified that he was sure he would have read the packet, but

        that does not necessarily support an inference that he remembered this one specific detail

        when speaking on air five days later.

               As possible evidence of Cavuto’s state of mind, these facts are much less convincing

        than those in cases where courts have found a genuine issue of actual malice. See Zerangue

        v. TSP Newspapers, Inc., 814 F.2d 1066, 1071–72 (5th Cir. 1987) (defendant newspaper

        printed a false story a second time, even though the editors responsible for the second story

        arguably knew the newspaper had retracted the first one); Golden Bear Distrib. Sys. of Tex.,

        Inc. v. Chase Revel, Inc., 708 F.2d 944, 950 (5th Cir. 1983) (author of allegedly defamatory

        story had contemporaneous notes that “clearly indicate[d] her awareness” that her story

        was false). 6 Doocy’s remark and the briefing packet might well permit a finding that a

               6
                 Blankenship also cites to Palin v. N.Y. Times Co., 940 F.3d 804 (2d Cir. 2019). But
        that case was decided at the motion-to-dismiss stage and is inapposite here. See id. at 816
        (holding only that the plaintiff plausibly alleged that the defendant acted with actual malice).

                                                      23
USCA4 Appeal: 22-1207      Doc: 113          Filed: 02/22/2023      Pg: 24 of 44

        reasonable person in Cavuto’s position should have known Blankenship was convicted of

        a misdemeanor, but actual malice requires “much more” than mere negligence. Hatfill v.

        N.Y. Times Co., 532 F.3d 312, 325 (4th Cir. 2008).

               And even if a reasonable jury can infer that Cavuto heard and remembered Doocy’s

        “misdemeanor” comment, it still could not find with convincing clarity that Cavuto had

        serious doubts about the truth of his May 7 statement. Cavuto knew Blankenship was

        charged with and convicted of a federal conspiracy offense in the wake of a mine disaster

        that killed twenty-nine people, and that he was sentenced to one year in federal prison—

        exactly one day less than a felony sentence—and fined a quarter of a million dollars.

        Blankenship himself admits this was a highly unusual sentence for a misdemeanor offense;

        he notes that he was the only inmate at his prison who was not serving a sentence for a

        felony conviction. In light of these facts, no reasonable jury could find by clear and

        convincing evidence that Cavuto, who is not a lawyer, understood it was inaccurate to

        describe Blankenship as a “convicted felon.”        In other words, Blankenship has not

        presented sufficient evidence disputing Cavuto’s belief that it was appropriate to

        colloquially describe someone who served a one-year prison sentence as a “convicted

        felon.” 7

               7
                  At first glance, this discussion might seem to overlap with the falsity element, but
        it is a distinct issue. Even assuming that the “felon” description is not substantially true
        and therefore satisfies the falsity element, the fact that some might use the word “felon” to
        refer colloquially to any serious crime informs our actual malice analysis. Specifically,
        this linguistic issue helps explain why certain journalists might have believed it was
        acceptable to refer to Blankenship as a felon even if they had heard that his conviction was
        technically classified as a misdemeanor. Indeed, the record suggests that even Blankenship
        (Continued)
                                                     24
USCA4 Appeal: 22-1207      Doc: 113          Filed: 02/22/2023     Pg: 25 of 44

               Cavuto’s on-air interview with Blankenship on May 22, 2018, reinforces this

        conclusion. When Blankenship emphasized that he had never been convicted of a felony,

        Cavuto asked, “So what are you if you’ve served time in jail?” J.A. 3552, 5671. Cavuto

        then asked the same question to Napolitano: “So serving a year in jail doesn’t make you a

        convicted felon?” J.A. 3554–55. These exchanges, which took place just two weeks after

        Cavuto’s May 7 statement, indicate that Cavuto had not understood the inaccuracy of his

        remark. See Zerangue, 814 F.2d at 1071 (“The fact that [an editor] had to ask [the plaintiff]

        what was inaccurate about the story when [the plaintiff] called to protest tends to indicate

        that [the editor] did not know of the inaccuracy.”). This evidence underscores that Cavuto

        was confused about Blankenship’s criminal status because of the one-year prison sentence,

        and it precludes a finding by clear and convincing evidence that Cavuto seriously doubted

        the truth of his May 7 statement.

                                                     b.

               Less analysis is required for the statements made by the four other Fox

        News commentators: John Layfield, Bradley Blakeman, Stephanie Hamill, and

        Elizabeth MacDonald. Blankenship points to no direct evidence of knowledge that rebuts

        the commentators’ testimony that they believed their statements were accurate at the time.

        He cannot avoid summary judgment simply by asserting that the jury could disbelieve their

        testimony. Liberty Lobby, 477 U.S. at 256.

        was confused about how to refer to his criminal status; in the May 22 interview with
        Cavuto, he repeatedly called himself a “misdemeanor.” J.A. 5671.
                                                     25
USCA4 Appeal: 22-1207      Doc: 113         Filed: 02/22/2023      Pg: 26 of 44

               In an attempt to create a jury question, Blankenship claims the record contains

        sufficient circumstantial evidence of actual malice. “Although courts must be careful not

        to place too much reliance on such factors, a plaintiff is entitled to prove the defendant’s

        state of mind through circumstantial evidence[.]” Harte-Hanks, 491 U.S. at 668. Here,

        Blankenship focuses on (1) the emails from Rupert Murdoch and the McConnell aide that

        requested negative coverage of his campaign, and (2) Fox News’s initial failure to retract

        Napolitano’s misstatement.

               From the two emails, it is safe to conclude that Murdoch and McConnell wished to

        damage Blankenship’s Senate candidacy. But “while motive [or animus] can be relevant

        to the actual malice inquiry, it is not dispositive standing alone.” Cannon, 36 F.4th at 568

        (cleaned up); see Hinerman v. Daily Gazette Co., 423 S.E.2d 560, 573 (W. Va. 1992). As

        we have explained, “many publications set out to portray a particular viewpoint or even to

        advance a partisan cause. Defamation judgments do not exist to police their objectivity.”

        Reuber v. Food Chem. News, Inc., 925 F.2d 703, 716 (4th Cir. 1991) (en banc).

               Here, the two emails do not establish actual malice because Blankenship fails to show

        a sufficient nexus between those communications and the Fox News commentators’ false

        statements. Murdoch’s May 6 email to the two Fox News senior executives read: “Both

        Trump and McConnell appealing for help to beat unelectable former mine owner who served

        time. Anything during day helpful but Sean and Laura dumping on him hard might save the

        day.” J.A. 4052. This does not suggest that Murdoch instructed anchors to falsely call

        Blankenship a felon or even implied that they should. The same is true of the McConnell

        aide’s May 3 email to Martha MacCallum, which made a tacit request for negative coverage

                                                    26
USCA4 Appeal: 22-1207      Doc: 113          Filed: 02/22/2023      Pg: 27 of 44

        of Blankenship but did not raise the issue of his criminal history.          Karl Rove and

        Tammy Bruce’s comments on MacCallum’s show the following day were harshly critical of

        Blankenship, but they did not mischaracterize his conviction—Blankenship does not allege

        that Rove or Bruce defamed him. To be sure, the various Fox News statements calling him

        a felon all occurred shortly after these two emails were sent, but that temporal relationship,

        without more, is not nearly enough. In defamation cases, “the state of mind required for

        actual malice [must] be brought home to the persons in the . . . organization having

        responsibility for the publication,” N.Y. Times, 367 U.S. at 287, and Blankenship offers no

        concrete evidence connecting the emails to the challenged statements.

               Lastly, Blankenship emphasizes that Fox News producers refused to allow

        Napolitano to appear on air to correct his misstatement. We have explained that a

        publisher’s failure to retract a statement upon request generally “is not probative of [the

        speaker’s] state of mind at the time of publication.” Fairfax v. CBS Corp., 2 F.4th 286,

        295 (4th Cir. 2021). Even if the network’s reticent response to Napolitano’s requests is

        relevant, it is far from clear and convincing evidence that Cavuto and the four other

        commentators later made their statements with actual malice. Put simply, Blankenship

        offers no non-speculative reason to believe there was any connection between the

        producers’ actions and the allegedly defamatory statements.

               For these reasons, we conclude that Blankenship’s failure to provide sufficient

        evidence of actual malice defeats his defamation claims against Fox News.

                                                     27
USCA4 Appeal: 22-1207       Doc: 113          Filed: 02/22/2023     Pg: 28 of 44

                                                      2.

               Next, we proceed to the defamation claims against MSNBC, which focus on

        Chris Hayes’s two on-air statements describing Blankenship as a “convicted felon.” 8 In a

        deposition, Hayes testified that he believed his comments were accurate when he made

        them, asserting: “I knew [Blankenship] had done a year in federal prison, and I just thought

        that meant he had been convicted of a felony.” J.A. 515.

               In an attempt to create a genuine dispute as to Hayes’s knowledge, Blankenship

        highlights two events. The first is the November 29, 2017 broadcast of All In, during which

        MSNBC displayed the titles of two news articles about Blankenship as on-screen graphics.

        The body of each article accurately identified Blankenship’s conviction as a misdemeanor,

        but that detail was not shown on screen or discussed during the November 29 show. Even

        viewing the facts in the light most favorable to Blankenship, we cannot infer that Hayes

        read the two articles in their entirety, or that another staffer read them and relayed the

        information about Blankenship’s conviction to Hayes. While Hayes noted that MSNBC

        had relied on the articles as sources, that does not mean he engaged with the specific

               8
                 Blankenship argues in his reply brief that Joy Reid also acted with actual malice when
        she described him as a convicted felon during a May 4, 2018 telecast. But he failed to make
        that argument in his opening brief, and “an issue first argued in a reply brief is not properly
        before a court of appeals.” Cavallo v. Star Enter., 100 F.3d 1150, 1152 n.2 (4th Cir. 1996). In
        any event, there is no evidence in the record disputing Reid’s testimony that, at the time she
        made the statement, she believed Blankenship had been convicted of a felony.

                In the district court, Blankenship also alleged that Hayes’s April 16, 2018 tweet
        calling him a “felonious coal baron” was defamatory. The district court held that the tweet
        “is insufficient to establish MSNBC’s liability inasmuch as it was tweeted from Mr. Hayes’
        personal account.” J.A. 5725 n.40. Blankenship does not contest that ruling on appeal, so
        we do not consider it further.
                                                      28
USCA4 Appeal: 22-1207      Doc: 113           Filed: 02/22/2023    Pg: 29 of 44

        references to Blankenship’s misdemeanor conviction, particularly because the record does

        not indicate that Hayes discussed that detail during the November 29 broadcast.

               The second event is the December 2015 email exchange between Hayes and All In

        staff members, in which Hayes wrote that Blankenship “only got nailed on the

        misdemeanor” and “[p]robably [would not spend] a day in jail.” J.A. 845. The email

        certainly shows that Hayes knew about the misdemeanor conviction in late 2015, but we

        are skeptical that this constitutes clear and convincing proof of his state of mind two and a

        half years later. Crucially, Hayes’s 2015 email came before Blankenship was sentenced to

        and served a year in prison (and therefore before Hayes learned about the sentence)—a fact

        that very well could lead a non-lawyer like Hayes to believe it was accurate to refer to

        Blankenship as a felon years later.

               In the end, Hayes’s communications around the time of his 2018 statements cast too

        much doubt on the notion that he consciously misrepresented Blankenship’s criminal

        status. During the off-air conversation with Brian Montopoli hours before the April 23

        broadcast, Hayes referred to Blankenship as a “convicted felon,” and Montopoli did not

        correct him. This strongly suggests that by April 2018, Hayes had either forgotten about

        the misdemeanor classification or did not understand it would be incorrect to describe

        Blankenship as a felon. Hayes’s response to the viewer’s May 10 email that pointed out

                                                     29
USCA4 Appeal: 22-1207       Doc: 113          Filed: 02/22/2023     Pg: 30 of 44

        the inaccuracy provides further contemporaneous evidence that he simply made a mistake.

        See J.A. 847 (“Caught that after the show, but you’re r[i]ght.”). 9

               Nor does Blankenship present any affirmative evidence that Denis Horgan (All In’s

        Executive Producer) or any other staff member acted with a reckless disregard for the truth.

        The record shows that some of the challenged MSNBC statements were scripted. But the state

        of mind required for actual malice must be “brought home” to the persons responsible for

        publication, N.Y. Times, 367 U.S. at 287, and the record does not identify which staff members

        actually inserted the “felon” language into the scripts. In their deposition testimony, neither

        Horgan nor Reid could recall who wrote the scripted language, but Reid testified that she “did

        not work with Denis Horgan on the scripts for those shows.” J.A. 862–83.

               Blankenship argues that circumstantial evidence of actual malice gets this issue to the

        jury. We are unpersuaded. First, Blankenship asks us to find a genuine issue of actual malice

        because Hayes and the All In team exhibited animus towards him. The December 2015

        emails from staff members to Hayes—sent after Hayes wrote that Blankenship “[p]robably

        [would not spend] a day in jail” and before Blankenship’s sentencing—expressed frustration

        with the conviction. J.A. 845 (“A slap on the wrist for a dude who killed 29 people . . . .”);

        id. (“Very disappointing . . . he’s killed more people than most terrorists ever do[.]”). As

        with Fox News, however, this evidence of possible animus carries little weight in the actual

               9
                 Blankenship also contends that the April 2016 email from a staff member to Hayes
        stating that “our old friend Don Blankenship is going to the cooler for a year” helps his
        case, but it is hard to see how that supports an inference that Hayes later remembered the
        conviction was a misdemeanor rather than a felony. If anything, this email helps explain
        Hayes’s later belief that it was accurate to describe Blankenship as a felon in light of the
        one-year prison sentence.
                                                      30
USCA4 Appeal: 22-1207       Doc: 113          Filed: 02/22/2023       Pg: 31 of 44

        malice analysis. See Cannon, 36 F.4th at 568. That is particularly true here, where the hostile

        comments came two years before the allegedly defamatory statements.

               Second, Blankenship makes much of Hayes and Reid’s failure to issue corrections

        after learning their statements were inaccurate, but the lack of a retraction has little to no

        relevance in the actual malice inquiry. See Fairfax, 2 F.4th at 295; see also Pippen v.

        NBCUniversal Media, LLC, 734 F.3d 610, 614 (7th Cir. 2013) (“[A]ctual malice cannot be

        inferred from a publisher’s failure to retract a statement once it learns it to be false.”).

               Third, and finally, Blankenship suggests that MSNBC’s conduct violated

        NBCUniversal’s News Group Policies and Guidelines, which state that MSNBC “stands

        for accuracy,” J.A. 5467, and that corrections “should be addressed as soon as reasonably

        possible,” J.A. 5480. But “actual malice cannot be established merely by showing a

        departure from accepted journalistic or professional practices,” Church of Scientology

        International v. Daniels, 992 F.2d 1329, 1334 (4th Cir. 1993), and even an “extreme

        departure” from such standards is inadequate. Harte-Hanks, 491 U.S. at 665. A violation

        of journalistic standards may be relevant when combined with other proof of actual malice,

        but even if we assume that MSNBC violated its policies here, the evidence falls short.

        Because the policy Blankenship cites focuses on corrections, this argument essentially

        restates his failure-to-correct claim. Once again, a publisher’s failure to retract a statement

        has very little probative value, if any.

               Based on the summary judgment record, a reasonable jury could not find that Hayes

        or any other MSNBC employee made the relevant statements with actual malice.

                                                       31
USCA4 Appeal: 22-1207      Doc: 113         Filed: 02/22/2023    Pg: 32 of 44

                                                    3.

              Turning to CNN, Blankenship alleges that three individuals affiliated with the

        network made defamatory statements during live broadcasts:           Kevin McLaughlin,

        S.E. Cupp, and Joe Lockhart. Here, too, the record does not support a finding by clear and

        convincing evidence that any of the three made the statements with actual malice.

              To start, McLaughlin described Blankenship as a “convicted felon” during an

        unscripted portion of CNN Newsroom on April 29, 2018. In a deposition, McLaughlin

        explained that he believed the “convicted felon” description was accurate at the time—his

        “understanding was, given what happened in the sentence, that it was obviously a very

        serious crime.” J.A. 1402. McLaughlin also stated that he had “Googled it” prior to his

        appearance on CNN and from that search “was led to believe [Blankenship] was a

        convicted felon.” J.A. 1403.

              To be sure, McLaughlin made the “convicted felon” comment only a few minutes

        after Dana Bash had remarked that Blankenship “served a year in prison” but “reminds us

        [his conviction] was just a misdemeanor.”        J.A. 1383–86.   Bash’s reference to the

        misdemeanor conviction is the only evidence that McLaughlin knew it was inaccurate to

        describe Blankenship as a convicted felon. But, if anything, the fact that McLaughlin

        called Blankenship a felon so soon after Bash’s comment indicates that McLaughlin, a non-

        lawyer, simply did not understand the legal distinction between a felony and a

        misdemeanor in this case. Without more, we cannot conclude that a reasonable jury could

                                                   32
USCA4 Appeal: 22-1207      Doc: 113         Filed: 02/22/2023      Pg: 33 of 44

        find with convincing clarity that McLaughlin’s statement was a “knowing, calculated

        falsehood.” 10 Ryan v. Brooks, 634 F.2d 726, 733 (4th Cir. 1980).

               Moving on, there is no evidence that Lockhart or Cupp knew they were likely

        making false statements when they called Blankenship a felon. Both testified that they

        believed their statements were correct when they made them, and Blankenship presents no

        evidence to rebut that testimony. Unfiltered played a short clip from the West Virginia

        primary debate during the May 2 telecast, and, at one point in that debate, Blankenship

        stated he “beat all three of the felonies” and was “sent . . . to prison for a misdemeanor.”

        Opening Br. 51. But the transcript of the May 2 Unfiltered telecast does not include that

        portion of the debate, and no facts dispute Cupp’s assertion that she did not recall seeing

        it. Blankenship asks us to infer that Cupp saw that part of the debate, but without any

        affirmative evidence, that calls for speculation and goes beyond the reasonable inferences

        we make in his favor at the summary judgment stage.

               Blankenship once again tries to shore up his case with circumstantial evidence. He

        contends that CNN demonstrated animus, violated its internal standards, and failed to

        investigate his criminal history before broadcasting the statements in question. These facts

        do not create a genuine issue of actual malice. When he called Blankenship a felon,

        Lockhart also expressed his view that Blankenship was “crazy” and a “racist,” likely

        referring to comments he had made about Secretary Chao’s Chinese heritage. J.A. 1428.

               10
                  For her part, Bash’s unrebutted testimony is that McLaughlin’s on-air comment
        did not “register[] with [her] at the time.” J.A. 1396–97. Regardless, Bash’s failure to
        correct the record does not establish that she acted with actual malice.
                                                    33
USCA4 Appeal: 22-1207       Doc: 113         Filed: 02/22/2023     Pg: 34 of 44

        But, again, that cannot substitute for the complete lack of direct evidence that Lockhart

        knew his statement was false. Next, the internal CNN standards Blankenship cites express

        a general commitment to “accurate, fair, and responsible” reporting and explain what

        qualifies as defamation. J.A. 1690–91. In essence, Blankenship argues that the statements

        violated CNN policies because they were inaccurate. But this is not helpful to the actual

        malice inquiry. See Bose Corp. v. Consumers Union of U.S., Inc., 466 U.S. 485, 511 (1984)

        (“[T]here is a significant difference between proof of actual malice and mere proof of

        falsity.”).

                Blankenship’s failure-to-investigate argument also falters.        The “failure to

        investigate before publishing, even when a reasonably prudent person would have done so,

        is not sufficient to establish reckless disregard,” Harte-Hanks, 491 U.S. at 688; such

        inaction rises to the level of actual malice only if it amounts to a “purposeful avoidance of

        the truth,” id. at 692. This is not such a case. Blankenship’s prison sentence placed him

        as close to felony status as possible; for non-lawyers like McLaughlin, Cupp, and Lockhart,

        describing Blankenship as a felon was not “inherently improbable,” and there were not

        “obvious reasons to doubt the veracity” of such a statement. St. Amant, 390 U.S. at 732.

                For these reasons, the cumulative record, viewed in the light most favorable to

        Blankenship, does not permit a reasonable jury to find that anyone at CNN acted with

        actual malice.

                                                     4.

                Blankenship’s defamation claim against the Washington Post focuses on two published

        statements: a July 25, 2018 article authored by Jenna Johnson and Josh Dawsey that described

                                                     34
USCA4 Appeal: 22-1207       Doc: 113          Filed: 02/22/2023       Pg: 35 of 44

        him as a “felon,” and an August 9, 2018 blog post by Amber Phillips that referred to him as

        “one of three convicted felons” running for office in 2018. We conclude that Blankenship has

        failed to establish a genuine issue that either was made with actual malice.

               Starting with the July 25 article, nothing suggests that Dawsey or Johnson had

        serious doubts about the accuracy of the “felon” statement. The uncontested record shows

        that Dawsey neither wrote nor reviewed the relevant part of the article, and even if he had,

        no evidence suggests that Dawsey knew the statement was incorrect. Nor do any facts

        rebut Johnson’s declaration that she did not realize the term “felon” was inaccurate at the

        time of publication, that she used the word “because [she] understood [Blankenship] had

        been convicted of a serious crime and sent to prison,” and that she “recall[ed] having seen

        or heard him referred to as a felon.” J.A. 2057.

               Blankenship also cannot establish a genuine issue of actual malice as to Phillips’s

        August 9 blog post. In her declaration, Phillips, like all the other journalists thus far, stated

        she believed her description of Blankenship as a “convicted felon” was correct at the time.

        She noted that she “knew Mr. Blankenship had gone to prison for a serious crime,” and

        that her “understanding [was] that the word ‘felon’ could be used to refer to someone who

        has been convicted of a crime.” J.A. 2079.

               In response, Blankenship points out that (1) one of Phillips’s earlier blog posts,

        published on May 1, 2018, referred to Blankenship’s conviction “on a misdemeanor for

        conspiring to violate mine safety laws” (and his one-year prison sentence), J.A. 2298, and

        (2) Phillips received three mass-distributed emails in early May 2018 that briefly

        mentioned the same. But these facts do not make it “highly probable” that Phillips

                                                       35
USCA4 Appeal: 22-1207       Doc: 113          Filed: 02/22/2023     Pg: 36 of 44

        demonstrated a reckless disregard for the truth when she wrote the August 9 story. Cannon,

        36 F.4th at 573. For starters, we doubt it is reasonable to infer that Phillips even read the

        three mass emails in their entirety, let alone that she remembered this particular detail while

        writing the August 9 blog post. And it seems tenuous to infer from Phillips’s May 1 story

        that she remembered the details of Blankenship’s conviction on August 9, particularly

        because she wrote more than 100 stories in the intervening three months. But even if we

        drew that inference, a jury could not find with convincing clarity that Phillips was not

        simply confused about the meaning of the term “felon.”

               As with the prior Defendants, circumstantial evidence does not create a genuine

        issue of actual malice here. Blankenship focuses solely on the Washington’s Post’s failure

        to fact-check the articles before publication. The Post’s Policies and Standards provide

        that “reporters have primary responsibility for reporting, writing, and fact-checking their

        stories,” and that stories “are subject to review by one or more editors.” J.A. 2274.

        However, as previously discussed, inadequate fact-checking cannot by itself establish that

        Johnson or Dawsey published their article with actual malice. See Daniels, 992 F.2d at

        1334. Nor does it get Blankenship’s challenge to Phillip’s story over the summary

        judgment hurdle. See Dongguk Univ. v. Yale Univ., 734 F.3d 113, 126 (2d Cir. 2013)

        (“Even the failure to review one’s own files is inadequate to demonstrate malice by the

        party responsible for publishing a statement.”).

               Thus, we conclude there is legally insufficient evidence that the Washington Post

        published these statements with actual malice.

                                                      36
USCA4 Appeal: 22-1207       Doc: 113          Filed: 02/22/2023     Pg: 37 of 44

                                                      5.

               Blankenship’s defamation claim against ABC centers on the July 23, 2018 article

        by John Verhovek. In the article, Verhovek referred to Blankenship as “the former coal

        baron and convicted felon” and stated he “was convicted in 2015 for conspiracy to violate

        mine safety and health standards in the aftermath of the 2010 Upper Big Branch Mine

        disaster that resulted in the death of 29 miners.” J.A. 2633.

               Like the authors of the other Defendants’ statements, Verhovek asserted that he did

        not realize the term “convicted felon” was false when he placed it in the article. He explained

        that he “had always understood and used the term ‘felony’ to mean ‘serious crime,’ and the

        term ‘felon’ to mean ‘someone who committed a serious crime,’” and that he therefore used

        the term “convicted felon” to “refer to someone who served significant time in prison after

        being convicted of a crime.” J.A. 2576. Verhovek further stated that he was aware

        Blankenship “had spent a significant amount of time in federal prison” but “did not know

        the details about his criminal case” or that “he was acquitted of some charges.” J.A. 2573.

               While we cannot credit Verhovek’s testimony regarding his state of mind over

        contrary record facts, contemporaneous evidence indicates that he did not realize the

        “convicted felon” language was false.        Most relevant is Verhovek’s response when

        Meridith McGraw contacted him about the error in the article. After McGraw explained

        that Blankenship was convicted of a misdemeanor, Verhovek responded, “Meridith can

        you send me exact language on this? Blankenship was sent to federal prison but he was

        not convicted of a felony?” J.A. 2735. In a later text to McGraw, Verhovek again admitted

        his confusion, writing: “Sorry about Blankenship, I thought I had it right on that or [had]

                                                      37
USCA4 Appeal: 22-1207      Doc: 113          Filed: 02/22/2023      Pg: 38 of 44

        seen it in an earlier story, that’s my bad.” J.A. 2812. These exchanges strongly suggest

        that Verhovek’s error was a mistake based on his confusion about how to refer to a person

        who served a one-year sentence in federal prison. Further, the record shows that Verhovek

        had previously described Blankenship as a “convicted felon” in a March 2018 email to an

        editor, and that the editor did not flag the description as inaccurate. J.A. 2577.

               Blankenship contends there is a genuine dispute as to Verhovek’s knowledge

        because (1) he had authored or co-authored three earlier articles for ABC that accurately

        called the conviction a misdemeanor; and (2) he had received multiple distribution-list

        emails from McGraw in May 2018 that did the same. But this evidence, viewed in the

        context of the entire record, does not allow a finding by clear and convincing evidence that

        Verhovek “entertained serious doubts as to the truth” of the “convicted felon” language in

        his July 23 article. St. Amant, 390 U.S. at 731. In light of the whole record—particularly

        Verhovek’s contemporaneous messages to McGraw—Blankenship cannot establish that

        the language in the July 23 article was anything more than a careless mistake, caused by

        Verhovek’s confusion about the appropriate use of the word “felon.”

               Undeterred, Blankenship argues that Verhovek should have consulted his prior

        reporting or otherwise fact-checked the July 23 article before publishing it. But, as was

        the case for Phillips’s Washington Post story, Verhovek’s or another editor’s failure to fact-

        check is not enough to manufacture a genuine issue of actual malice here.

               Finally, it is significant that ABC promptly corrected the article after Blankenship’s

        campaign contacted McGraw to request a correction. While the failure to issue a correction

        cannot establish actual malice, the “readiness to retract tends to negate ‘actual malice,’”

                                                     38
USCA4 Appeal: 22-1207      Doc: 113          Filed: 02/22/2023      Pg: 39 of 44

        Zerangue, 814 F.2d at 1071, and Verhovek worked with editors to correct the article and

        social media posts within hours of their publication.

               In sum, the district court correctly concluded that the facts related to Verhovek’s

        July 23 article “fail to tip the scales towards clear and convincing evidence of actual malice

        when viewed in connection with the entirety of the evidentiary record.” J.A. 5714.

                                                      6.

               The district court also correctly held that there is insufficient proof of actual malice

        with respect to the ten other Defendants in the consolidated appeal: News & Guts,

        Eli Lehrer, Mediaite, Tamar Auber, Griffin Connolly, 11 FiscalNote, HD Media,

        NBCUniversal, CNBC, and 35th PAC.

               Nothing in the record suggests that any of these Defendants had the required state

        of mind when they published statements describing Blankenship as a felon. The authors

        of these statements all asserted that they were unaware the term “felon” was incorrect at

        the time of publication. While at least two Defendants, HD Media and NBC, had

        previously reported that Blankenship’s conviction was a misdemeanor, there is no evidence

        that the authors of the allegedly defamatory statements had seen those earlier publications

        or any other materials that correctly described Blankenship’s conviction. In fact, several

        said they recalled seeing references to Blankenship as a felon in other stories—which is

        unsurprising, given that Blankenship initially identified more than 100 publications that

               11
                   The district court granted summary judgment to Griffin Connolly based on the
        uncontested fact that he was not involved in publishing the statement Blankenship had
        attributed to him. Blankenship does not contest that decision on appeal and therefore
        forfeits the issue.
                                                      39
USCA4 Appeal: 22-1207      Doc: 113         Filed: 02/22/2023     Pg: 40 of 44

        included such references. See Daniels, 992 F.2d at 1334 (concluding it was “impossible”

        to find actual malice “[g]iven the volume of published commentary” consistent with the

        author’s statements).

               Nor is there enough circumstantial evidence of actual malice as to these Defendants.

        Blankenship repeats his refrain that these Defendants’ animus, violation of journalistic

        standards, and failure to correct the statements produce a genuine issue of actual malice.

        But his arguments are mostly speculative and do not come close to the quantum of evidence

        needed to create a jury question.

                                                    7.

               Finally, we reach Blankenship’s defamation claim against the Boston Globe. As we

        noted above, Blankenship takes issue with a single article, which the Globe repurposed

        from an AP wire story and published on May 22, 2018. The original AP story described

        Blankenship as a “convicted ex-coal baron” who had “spent a year in federal prison for

        violating safety regulations in a 2010 mine explosion that killed 29 miners.” G.J.A. 356–

        59. The Globe copy editor who condensed the story, Daniel Coleman, changed the

        description to “convicted felon and former coal baron” and removed the reference to

        Blankenship’s prison sentence. G.J.A. 346. Here, too, we hold that the record would not

        permit a jury to find actual malice by clear and convincing evidence.

               There is no evidence that Coleman knew the “convicted felon” language was likely

        false. Blankenship did not depose Coleman during discovery. David Dahl, the Globe’s

        Deputy Managing Editor for Print and Operations, was deposed as the Globe’s Rule

        30(b)(6) corporate representative. Dahl testified that “what happened here was an honest

                                                    40
USCA4 Appeal: 22-1207        Doc: 113          Filed: 02/22/2023       Pg: 41 of 44

        mistake by an editor looking at a story about a very serious incident and editing an incorrect

        characterization” into the article, and further stated that the Globe “took the mistake

        seriously and . . . regret[ted] making the error.” G.J.A. 416. This explanation makes sense;

        in the condensed article, Coleman substituted the word “felon” for the longer description

        of Blankenship’s prison sentence, which suggests he believed that an offense punishable

        by one year in prison could be described as a felony.

               Nothing in the record indicates that Coleman’s edit was anything more than a simple

        accident. Blankenship calls our attention to three earlier Globe articles that accurately

        reported on Blankenship’s misdemeanor conviction. But there is no reason to believe that

        Coleman—or any other Globe employee involved in publishing the May 22 article—was

        aware of those earlier stories.

               Without any evidence of Coleman’s subjective knowledge, Blankenship returns to

        a well-trodden path, arguing that the district court’s actual malice analysis did not account

        for Coleman’s failure to fact-check before publishing the article. Standing alone, though,

        an editor’s “failure to investigate before publishing . . . is not sufficient to establish reckless

        disregard.” Harte-Hanks, 491 U.S. at 688. That includes the failure to review news stories

        in the newspaper’s own files. See N.Y. Times, 376 U.S. at 287. Blankenship claims that

        Coleman also violated journalistic standards, but those standards relate to fact-checking,

        so this contention merely duplicates his failure-to-investigate argument.

               A copy editor might well be negligent for publishing a story without confirming the

        accuracy of certain information in it, but actual malice demands subjective knowledge of

                                                        41
USCA4 Appeal: 22-1207       Doc: 113           Filed: 02/22/2023     Pg: 42 of 44

        likely falsity. On these facts, a reasonable jury could not conclude that Coleman acted with

        such a state of mind. 12

                                                *      *      *

               Like the district court in its well-reasoned analysis, we reach these conclusions

        without crediting Defendants’ denials of actual malice over contrary facts, discounting

        certain evidence, or drawing inferences in Defendants’ favor. Rather, the cumulative

        record simply does not permit a finding, by clear and convincing evidence, that any

        Defendant “in fact entertained serious doubts as to the truth” of the statements it published.

        St. Amant, 390 U.S. at 731. Some of the statements may have been the product of

        carelessness and substandard journalistic methods. But at the end of the day, the record

        does not contain evidence that the commentators and journalists responsible for the

        statements were anything more than confused about how to describe a person who served

        a year in prison for a federal offense. 13

               12
                   Blankenship also complains that the Boston Globe’s later correction to the May 22
        article was defamatory because it stated he “was convicted of a misdemeanor for his role in
        connection with a deadly 2010 mine disaster.” G.J.A. 314 (emphasis added). However, in
        the district court, he did not bring a defamation claim based on the language in the correction.
        In any event, it is far from clear that this description of Blankenship’s conviction is even
        false, and there certainly is no evidence it was published with actual malice.
               13
                 In his briefing, Blankenship separately argues that New York Times v. Sullivan
        should be overturned. But, of course, this Court “cannot overrule Supreme Court
        precedents.” In re Grand Jury Subpoena, 870 F.3d 312, 319 n.3 (4th Cir. 2017).
                                                      42
USCA4 Appeal: 22-1207        Doc: 113        Filed: 02/22/2023       Pg: 43 of 44

               Because there is legally insufficient evidence that any of the Defendants published

        a statement with actual malice, the district court correctly granted summary judgment to

        Defendants on Blankenship’s defamation claims.

                                                     IV.

               For the same reasons, the district court also did not err in granting summary

        judgment to Defendants on Blankenship’s false light invasion of privacy and civil

        conspiracy claims.

               West Virginia recognizes false light invasion of privacy as an independent cause of

        action. Crump v. Beckley Newspapers, Inc., 320 S.E.2d 70, 88 (W. Va. 1983). The

        elements of defamation and false light invasion of privacy are not identical, but as with a

        defamation claim, a public-figure plaintiff alleging false light must prove that the defendant

        made a false statement with actual malice. Taylor v. W. Va. Dep’t of Health & Human

        Res., 788 S.E.2d 295, 315–16 (W. Va. 2016). For the reasons we have discussed,

        Blankenship has not established a genuine dispute of material fact that any Defendant acted

        with actual malice. His false light claims therefore fail.

               Blankenship’s civil conspiracy claims meet the same fate. Under West Virginia

        law, civil conspiracy is defined as “a combination to commit a tort.” Dunn v. Rockwell,

        689 S.E.2d 255, 268 (W. Va. 2009). While West Virginia recognizes a separate cause of

        action for civil conspiracy, “[t]he cause of action is not created by the conspiracy but by

        the wrongful acts done by the defendants to the injury of the plaintiff.” Id. at 259. A

        conspiracy claim enables a plaintiff to recover damages against additional defendants “who

                                                     43
USCA4 Appeal: 22-1207         Doc: 113          Filed: 02/22/2023       Pg: 44 of 44

        did not actually commit a tort themselves,” but the claim cannot stand without proof of the

        underlying tort. Id. at 269. As the West Virginia Supreme Court explained, “[a] conspiracy

        may produce one or more torts. If it does, then every conspirator is liable for that tort,

        including a conspirator who promoted but did not commit the tort. A conspiracy is not,

        itself, a tort. It is the tort, and each tort, not the conspiracy, that is actionable.” Id. (quoting

        Segall v. Hurwitz, 339 N.W.2d 333, 338 (Wis. App. 1983)) (emphasis added). This rule

        makes particular sense in defamation cases; to comply with New York Times v. Sullivan, a

        public-figure plaintiff must show that some defendant actually published a false statement

        with actual malice.

               At this stage, Blankenship’s only remaining civil conspiracy claims are against Fox

        News. Because he has not offered sufficient evidence of actual malice to support his

        defamation or false light claims against Fox News, he cannot establish an underlying tort,

        and his conspiracy claims fail as a matter of law. See, e.g., Long v. M&M Transp., LLC,

        44 F. Supp. 3d 636, 652 (N.D.W. Va. 2014) (holding civil conspiracy claim failed because

        there was “no underlying tort to support [it]”).

                                                        V.

               For the reasons set forth in this opinion, we affirm the district court’s orders granting

        summary judgment to Defendants and dismissing these actions.

                                                                                              AFFIRMED

                                                        44