Court Opinion

ID: 9544092
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 16:51:56.638079+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:11:58.512573
License: Public Domain

HENRIOD, Chief Justice
(dissenting).
I dissent and believe the lower court should be affirmed.
I have read the two broadcasts upon which this case is bottomed and I see nothing in them that would approach in infamy the critical analysis of a Consumers Guide, or a defamatory departure from an uncom-pensable effort to educate the public of the pros and cons of an article being placed before an unknowledgeable public, that not only is novel and obviously controversial in the eyes of others than the radio station as evidenced by the very language of the broadcasts and the source materials employed, but one, which, in a serious energy shortage, deserves a high degree of specificity in canvassing its fuel-saving capabilities.
There is nothing I discern in the newscasts that states as a fact precisely what the device can or cannot do, except as is found in the opinions of others, — presumably experts, — none of which substantially seems to have up-or-down-graded it.
As to evidence of malice with the intention seriously and wilfully to damage the *1043distributor of this article, there is no evidence thereof, as I can see, save the possibility of zealous inquiry on the part of the newscaster, — whose malice or naivete better should have been the concern of his employer. It is difficult to see how the news media would hate a carburetor without grease, and more difficult to see how Packer, who apparently could have employed a bit, — but seems not to have been going anywhere in particular, anyway,— except to court, likewise could hate a carburetor.
I wish someone years behind had warned me about Dr. Graves’ Easy Elixer, — cure for the misery, cancer and/or the common cold, — and leave Peter Zenger to run around so long as he is not a fugitive from irresponsible or unreasonable enlightenment of the public.