Court Opinion

ID: 9454162
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 18:38:12.603114+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:33:59.886548
License: Public Domain

HAYS, Circuit Judge
(dissenting):
I would reverse the judgment of the district court. I cannot agree with the majority’s conclusion that the Enquirer article is materially false.
Plaintiff’s entire argument rests, as the majority indicates, on the theory that the story portrayed him in a false and unsympathetic light by implying that he was lacking in sensitivity and understanding. He objects particularly to the statement in the article that he did not understand why his wife had killed herself. But plaintiff testified that he did not understand why his wife had killed herself and that he could not swear that he had not told the investigating police about his inability to understand.
If the omitted part of the suicide message had been included, the story would have been more accurate but it would not have reflected plaintiff in any better light.
The irony of the description of the wife as happy cannot properly be held to justify withdrawal of constitutional protection.
Even if it be assumed that the article contains some false statements and that they were published knowingly or recklessly, there is nothing in the statements as to the plaintiff which is so offensive as to justify the verdict. That the article is in bad taste is not sufficient. It clearly does not go “beyond the limits of decency,” as it must if plaintiff is to recover. See Aquino v. Bulletin Co., 190 Pa.Super. 528, 154 A.2d 422 (1959).
The news media must be allowed wide leeway in deciding what they will report and how they will report it. See St. Amant v. Thompson, 390 U.S. 727, 88 S. Ct. 1323, 20 L.Ed.2d 262 (1968); Time, Inc. v. Hill, 385 U.S. 374, 87 S.Ct. 534, 17 L.Ed.2d 456 (1967); New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254, 84 S.Ct. 710, 11 L.Ed.2d 686 (1964).