Court Opinion

ID: 9744966
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 22:26:10.371312+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:29:10.655059
License: Public Domain

AARON, J., Dissenting.

Introduction

“MANHUNT AT THE BORDER” is blazoned across the bottom of the television screen. A “Wanted” poster displaying photographs of plaintiffs is shown. The caption on the poster says: “Wanted [—] Robbery, Assault and Battery.” In introducing the segment, Alan Colmes, one of the two anchors of the telecast, states, “The San Diego Police are investigating an attack on an anti-illegal immigration advocate [John Monti] near a migrants’ encampment close to the San Diego/Mexico border.”
In spite of these facts, the majority reaches the remarkable conclusion that no reasonable person viewing this telecast would have concluded that plaintiffs were the subjects of a manhunt being conducted by law enforcement officers. (Maj. opn., ante, at p. 1339.) Further, notwithstanding the absence of any other express or implied reference to a manhunt throughout the remainder of the telecast, the majority concludes, “[T]he only reasonable conclusion is that the caption [‘MANHUNT AT THE BORDER’] refers to Monti’s own search for plaintiffs and his belief that they should be charged with an assault crime.” (Maj. opn., ante, at p. 1340.)
*1344The majority’s conclusion is based on the notion that any reasonable viewer of the telecast would interpret the word “manhunt” in a manner that is inconsistent with any known definition of the term, and inconsonant with the context in which the term is used in the telecast. Because I cannot agree with the majority’s reasoning or its conclusions, I dissent.1
A Reasonable Person Could Conclude That Fox News Made the Statements Alleged, and That the Statements Imply a False Factual Assertion
Plaintiffs’ claim is, in essence, that Fox News defamed them by implying, through the publication of the “Wanted” poster and the display of the “MANHUNT AT THE BORDER” caption, that plaintiffs were criminal fugitives who were wanted for the crimes of robbery and assault and battery, and that they were the subjects of an ongoing police manhunt. Fox News’s primary argument on appeal is that “the segment suggests not a law enforcement search, but a search by Monti and the Minutemen.”
At the outset of its analysis, the majority correctly states, “An alleged defamatory statement is actionable only if the statement, ‘considered within the context of the entire broadcast,’ could be reasonably interpreted in the manner alleged by the plaintiff,” and that, “[i]f no reasonable viewer could have reasonably understood the statement in the alleged defamatory sense, the matter may be decided as a question of law.” (Maj. opn., ante, at p. 1339.) The majority continues, “Applying these principles here, we conclude that a person who viewed the Fox News broadcast would not have reasonably concluded that law enforcement officers were conducting a ‘manhunt’ for plaintiffs. Instead, viewed in context, the manhunt caption was an attention-grabbing or colorful way of referring to Monti’s own attempts to bring to justice the alleged perpetrators of the attack against him.” (Maj. opn., ante, at p. 1339.)2
*1345The majority’s assertion that the “MANHUNT” caption could not reasonably be interpreted as suggesting a manhunt for plaintiffs by law enforcement authorities, and its assertion that the only reasonable interpretation of the caption is that it referred to a search for plaintiffs conducted by Monti, alone, is baseless.3 To begin with, this assertion is belied by the plain meaning of the word “manhunt” as reflected in the definitions of the term “manhunt” that Fox News, itself, offered in support of its anti-SLAPP motion, and which the majority cites in its opinion. Those definitions include the following: “[A]n organized search for a person especially a criminal: The police have launched a manhunt after the body of a six-year old boy was found last night”; “A search for one man, involving many searchers, normally for a criminal. After he did a runner, there was a full scale manhunt on to catch the murderer”; “[A]n organized intensive search, usu[ally] for a fugitive or fugitives from the law”; “An organized, extensive search for a person, usually a fugitive criminal”; “An organized search for a person, especially] a criminal”; and “[A]n intensive and usually large-scale organized search for someone, especially a criminal or fugitive.”
Contrary to the majority’s claim, is it abundantly clear that the word “manhunt” implies a search conducted by a large number of people. All of the above definitions suggest a large scale search for a criminal fugitive—i.e. a person “wanted” by law enforcement authorities in connection with the commission of a crime. Several of the examples of the use of the word “manhunt” that accompany the definitions either expressly or impliedly refer to a police manhunt. None of the definitions imply a search conducted by an individual, and the majority does not cite a single example of the use of the word “manhunt” to refer to a search conducted by an individual, acting alone.
Not surprisingly in view of these definitions, California courts have routinely used the term “manhunt” to refer to a search conducted by law *1346enforcement officers. (See, e.g., People v. Cruz (2008) 44 Cal.4th 636, 649 [80 Cal.Rptr.3d 126, 187 P.3d 970] [“After a massive manhunt lasting nearly a week, defendant and Estrada surrendered and were taken into custody at the rice mill where defendant and his brother were employed.”]; People v. Leonard (2007) 40 Cal.4th 1370, 1378 [58 Cal.Rptr.3d 368, 157 P.3d 973] [“The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department mounted a massive manhunt for the killer, interviewing hundreds of people.”].) As far as I am able to determine, the term “manhunt” has never been used in any published opinion by a California court to refer to a search conducted by an individual acting on his own, and the majority has not offered even a single instance in which the term has been used in such an unorthodox fashion in any source, be it a newspaper article, a television broadcast, or even a detective novel.
With respect to the majority’s assertion that the context in which Fox News used the “MANHUNT” caption makes it clear that the term referred only to Monti’s own quest to locate plaintiffs, apart from introducing the segment by referring to a police investigation, showing a “Wanted” poster (with no indication that Monti, and not the police, had prepared the poster), and presenting the caption, “MANHUNT AT THE BORDER” throughout the entire telecast, there is no other reference in the telecast to a search for plaintiffs. Thus, contrary to the majority’s suggestion, there is nothing about the context in which the caption was presented that would lead any reasonable person to conclude that the “MANHUNT” caption did not refer to a police manhunt, but rather, to a search for plaintiffs conducted by Monti alone.
The majority’s contention that rather than communicating to viewers that police were conducting a manhunt for plaintiffs, the “newscasters said just the opposite” (maj. opn., ante, at p. 1340, italics added), is particularly unpersuasive. In support of this contention, the majority notes that the newscasters informed viewers that the police were investigating the incident. The basis for the majority’s assertion that a police investigation is “the opposite” of a manhunt is, at best, unclear. (Maj. opn., ante, at p. 1340.) Law enforcement officers conduct manhunts in furtherance of investigations. (See, e.g., State v. Parker (2008) 381 S.C. 68 [671 S.E.2d 619, 621] [“Multiple agencies participated in the investigation and manhunt including the highway patrol, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, the Colleton County Sheriff’s Department, and the Department of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.”]; Smith v. U.S. (E.D.Tex., Mar. 12, 2007, No. 1:03-CV-1058) 2007 WL 781449, p. *1 [“After an exhaustive manhunt and investigation, including patrol officers, police dogs, detectives, and FBI agents, Smith, Stephens, and Tatum were arrested and indicted.”]; Kinge v. State (N.Y.Ct.Cl. 2007) 20 Misc.3d 161 [859 N.Y.S.2d 323, 326] [“A massive manhunt immediately ensued with more than 50 investigators eventually assigned to this investigation.”].) The fact that the *1347telecast informed viewers that police were investigating the incident in no way makes it clear that police were not conducting a manhunt for plaintiffs.
It is clear to me that a reasonable viewer could have understood the words “MANHUNT AT THE BORDER” in Fox News’s telecast to refer to a law enforcement manhunt. In fact, this interpretation is by far the most reasonable interpretation of the caption, and the one that I personally hold after having viewed the segment. The majority’s conclusion that plaintiffs have failed to make a prima facie showing that Fox News made a defamatory statement because, as a matter of law, no reasonable person could conclude that the telecast implied that plaintiffs were wanted by police for the crimes of robbery and assault and battery and were the subjects of a law enforcement manhunt, is, in my view, untenable.
A petition for a rehearing was denied June 9, 2009, and appellants’ petition for review by the Supreme Court was denied August 26, 2009, S174134. Werdegar, J., was of the opinion that the petition should be granted.

I have considered Fox News’s alternative arguments for affirming the judgment, namely that the manhunt caption was privileged as a “fair and true report’’ (Civ. Code, § 47, subd. (d)(1)) of the police investigation into the alleged attack, or that the caption constituted fair comment, or a rational interpretation of ambiguous facts, and have rejected them. However, I have restricted my analysis in this dissent to the majority’s conclusion that no reasonable viewer of the telecast could have interpreted the telecast as falsely implying the existence of a law enforcement manhunt for plaintiffs, and its suggestion that the “MANHUNT” caption constitutes mere hyperbole.

 The majority maintains that the “Manhunt” caption was merely “an attention-grabbing or colorful way” of referring to Monti’s own search for plaintiffs (maj. opn., ante, at p. 1339), and suggests, with no analysis, that the caption constitutes “hyperbole,” which is “constitutionally protected and not actionable.” (Maj. opn., ante, at p. 1342.)
The hallmark of protected rhetorical hyperbole is that it does not imply a provably false factual assertion. (Nygard, Inc. v. Uusi-Kerttula (2008) 159 Cal.App.4th 1027, 1048 [72 *1345Cal.Rptr.3d 210].) “[Statements ‘that cannot “reasonably [be] interpreted as stating actual facts” about an individual’ are . . . constitutionally protected.” (Lam v. Ngo (2001) 91 Cal.App.4th 832, 849 [111 Cal.Rptr.2d 582], quoting Milkovich v. Lorain Journal Co. (1990) 497 U.S. 1, 20 [111 L.Ed.2d 1, 110 S.Ct. 2695].) Specifically, “ ‘ “rhetorical hyperbole” ’ ” or “ ‘loose, figurative, or hyperbolic language’ which would ‘negate the impression that the writer was seriously maintaining’ a proposition that was ‘sufficiently factual to be susceptible of being proved true or false’ is protected.” (Lam, supra, 91 Cal.App.4th at p. 849, quoting Milkovich, supra, 497 U.S. at pp. 20-21.) The suggestion that Fox News was not seriously maintaining that there was in fact an ongoing manhunt for plaintiffs is completely implausible. Further, whether there was or was not an ongoing manhunt for plaintiffs is clearly a proposition that is susceptible of being proven true or false. Thus, contrary to the majority’s implication, the “MANHUNT” caption clearly does not constitute mere hyperbole.

 Not even Fox News makes this claim. Rather, as noted above, Fox News maintains that the “MANHUNT" caption referred to a manhunt being conducted by “Monti and the Minutemen.” (Italics added.) However, the majority omits any mention of the Minutemen being participants in the manhunt, apparently because, despite Fox News’s assertion, the telecast in fact contains no mention whatsoever of the Minutemen.