Court Opinion

ID: 9853772
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 05:54:18.092654+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:20:05.612662
License: Public Domain

*599Justice BURNETT,
concurring:
I concur in the majority’s opinion and result; however, I write separately to address the serious questions this case raises about the responsibilities of journalists to the public and their audiences.
Were we to hold the egregious facts of this case are insufficient to support a reasonable jury finding that Anderson has shown actual malice, we would essentially foreclose all liability for defamers against public officials.
The Chronicle discounts the evidence in arguing a failure to investigate alone, is insufficient for a finding that a defendant “recklessly disregarded” the falsity of a published article. The Chronicle ignores a line of Supreme Court jurisprudence guiding state and lower federal courts in determining what evidence is relevant to a finding of actual malice. The Supreme Court has concluded that, although a failure to investigate will not alone support a finding of actual malice, the purposeful avoidance of the truth is in an entirely different category. See New York Times v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254, 84 S.Ct. 710, 11 L.E.2d 686 (1964). A reasonable jury could certainly infer that Anderson’s claims of inaccuracy coupled with the circumstantial evidence outlined in the majority opinion evinces purposeful avoidance of the truth. See Harte-Hanks, 491 U.S. at 692-93, 109 S.Ct. at 2698, 105 L.E.2d at 562. To hold that a reasonable jury could find evidence of actual malice in this case would not impose, as the Chronicle suggests, a duty on a member of the press to avoid a colleague’s word while investigating a story. To the contrary, allowing a jury to determine whether actual malice has been shown in the face of the considerable circumstantial evidence in this case, strikes a balance between protecting an individual’s reputation and the First Amendment’s protection of free speech.
The right of a free press is not absolute in a society that demands social responsibility and personal integrity. Freedom itself is conditional upon the recognition of a higher social duty to pursue truth and justice. A publication that systematically panders to sensationalism and degradation at the expense of the truth presents a cost too high for a free society to tolerate.
*600I believe freedom of the press is one of the greatest safeguards of liberty. This safeguard is grounded in democratic ideals promoting free thought and vigorous debate. When deliberate deception is elevated to perceived truth, the very values a free press seeks to preserve are compromised. In the interests of justice, we will not allow a publication to go so unchecked as to promote the tyrannical imposition of false and misleading information — the very concern our forefathers sought to eliminate in demanding the press be free. Our liberty cannot be guarded but by a free and independent press. A reckless and deceptive media poses the greatest danger to this freedom we so cherish.
For the foregoing reasons, I agree the evidence, viewed in the light most favorable to Anderson, is sufficient to submit the question of actual malice to the jury.