Court Opinion

ID: 9632565
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 11:19:14.170591+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:08:18.635635
License: Public Domain

LOHR, Justice,
dissenting:
This defamation case is one more in our series of efforts to strike a constitutionally permissible balance between the freedoms of speech and the press guaranteed by the First Amendment and the protection of an individual’s interest in reputation and good name. The majority holds that the statement in a televised news feature that Sgt. Jack Burns’ wife and five children deserted him after an accident in which he suffered serious injuries is not constitutionally protected opinion. It also holds that there was clear and convincing evidence to support the jury’s finding that the respondent proceeded with reckless disregard of truth or falsity in broadcasting the statement. Because I disagree with each of these conclusions, I respectfully dissent.
I.
We have recognized that “a crucial distinction exists between false statements of fact which receive no constitutional protection in defamation cases and ideas or opinions which by definition can never be false so as to constitute false statements which are unprotected.” Bucher v. Roberts, 198 Colo. 1, 3, 595 P.2d 239, 241 (1979); see Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc., 418 U.S. 323, 94 S.Ct. 2997, 41 L.Ed.2d 789 (1974). “Whether a particular statement constitutes fact or opinion is a question of law.” Bucher v. Roberts, supra, 198 Colo. at 3, 595 P.2d at 241.
As the majority in the present case notes, however, Bucher did not cast a protective cloak over all statements framed as opinions. Bucher cited with approval and applied the following principle found in the Restatement (Second) of Torts § 566 (1976):
A defamatory communication may consist of a statement in the form of an opinion, but a statement of this nature is actionable only if it implies the allegation of undisclosed defamatory facts as the basis for the opinion.
It is this principle upon which the majority relies in ruling that the language at issue here is actionable. It concludes that the statement “that Mrs. Burns ‘deserted’ her husband after he was injured was not supported by disclosed facts or circumstances which would allow an average listener to evaluate the purported opinion.” (Slip op. at 1360.)1 Even assuming that “deserted” has a defamatory connotatipn in this context,2 I see nothing in this brief news story that would lead a viewer to conclude that the opinion that the family “deserted” Sgt. Burns was based on “inside knowledge” of “undisclosed circumstances.” (Slip op. at 1360.) Rather, the desertion statement is more naturally understood as the expression of an unrefined value judgment: there is no justification for a family to leave a husband and father who finds himself severely disabled as the result of an accident. I find in the text of the broadcast no suggestion, express or implied, that the desertion conclusion was based on more information, or on a more sophisticated analysis of the familial relationships, than that. The validity of this opinion depends upon the standards and values of the listener and viewer. Each learns the basis of the opinion from the broadcast and can independently assess whether it is sound or simplistic. Therefore, § 566 of the Restatement (Second) of Torts has no application.
*1367The majority suggests in the alternative that the statement at issue here may be fact and not opinion. I cannot agree. Accepting the majority’s holding that “desert” has derogatory connotations, the statement includes the judgment that it is unjustifiable for a family to leave a severely disabled husband and father under any circumstances. Unless there can be said to be a generally accepted community standard supporting this conclusion — and I do not believe there can — it necessarily represents a debatable value judgment. See Note, Fact and Opinion Alter Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc.: The Evolution of a Privilege, 34 Rutgers L.Rev. 81, 100 (1981); Keeton, Defamation and Freedom of the Press, 54 Tex.L. Rev. 1221, 1235 et seq. (1976). I simply cannot accept the majority’s conclusion that, with her more extensive knowledge of the relationship between Mr. and Mrs. Burns, the reporter “knew” that it was in fact untrue that Mrs. Burns and the children abandoned Mr. Burns without justification or right. (Slip op. at 1362.) This is not a knowable fact, but an expression of a value judgment — a constitutionally protected opinion.3
II.
Even if the majority were correct that the statement that Mrs. Burns and the children deserted Mr. Burns enjoys no constitutional protection as a statement of opinion, I do not believe that the plaintiff met her burden of proof that the statement was made with the knowledge it was false or with reckless disregard for its truth or falsity. See Diversified Management, Inc. v. Denver Post, Inc., 653 P.2d 1103 (Colo.1982). A finding of reckless disregard requires that there is “sufficient evidence to permit the conclusion that the defendant in fact entertained serious doubts as to the truth of his publication.” St. Amant v. Thompson, 390 U.S. 727, 731, 88 S.Ct. 1323, 1325, 20 L.Ed.2d 262, 267 (1968); Diversified Management, Inc. v. Denver Post, supra. Although, as the majority notes, the jury must determine the credibility of the witnesses, this does not relieve us of our responsibility to ensure protection of First Amendment freedoms by evaluating independently whether the evidence presented to the jury in support of the plaintiff’s claim of reckless disregard for the truth was clear and convincing. See New York Times v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254, 285, 84 S.Ct. 710, 728-29, 11 L.Ed.2d 686 (1964); DiLeo v. Koltnow, 200 Colo. 119, 613 P.2d 318 (1980). I find nothing in the record to support a conclusion by a clear and convincing standard that the defendant-entertained a serious doubt about truth or falsity in the selection of the single word “deserted,” included in a one-time broadcast, to describe the manner in which the family members separated.
III.
In our past decisions we have recognized that the First Amendment freedoms require breathing room and that it is necessary to impose strict tests on those seeking recovery for defamation against a news media defendant in order to avoid a chilling effect on robust debate inconsistent with the freedom of speech and of the press. E.g., Diversified Management, Inc. v. Denver Post, supra; DiLeo v. Koltnow, supra; Walker v. Colorado Springs Sun, Inc., 188 Colo. 86, 538 P.2d 450 (1975). As the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has said, in a defamation case involving publication of a book:
These strict tests may sometimes yield harsh results. Individuals who are defamed may be left without compensation. But excessive self-censorship ... would be a more dangerous evil. Protection and encouragement of writing and publishing, however controversial, is of prime importance to the enjoyment of first amend*1368ment freedoms. Any risk that full and vigorous exposition and expression of opinion on matters of public interest may be stifled must be given great weight. In areas of doubt and conflicting considerations, it is thought better to err on the side of free speech.
Hotchner v. Castillo-Puche, 551 F.2d 910, 913 (2d Cir.1977).
I would affirm the judgment of the Colorado Court of Appeals.
I am authorized to say that Justice RO-VIRA joins in this dissent.

. See part I of the majority opinion for the text of the statement at issue here.

. Justice Dubofsky argues ably in dissent that “desert” in this context simply means “leave,” and so is not defamatory at all.

. As Justice Dubofsky notes in her separate dissent, the desertion statement can also be understood not as a statement of fact but as rhetorical hyperbole, constitutionally protected under Greenbelt Cooperative Publishing Ass’n v. Bresler, 398 U.S. 6, 90 S.Ct. 1537, 26 L.Ed.2d 6, (1970) and National Assoc. of Letter Carriers v. Austin, 418 U.S. 264, 94 S.Ct. 2770, 41 L.Ed.2d 745 (1974).