Libel trial news story

Libel has been an offensive and serious form of defamation since the early beginnings of mass media around the world. The media, like fame and popularity, can sometimes prove to be a double-edged sword. Usually, it is a medium which helps to bring news and photographs to the world instantly after monumental moments in our history; other times, it can purposely set out to manipulate and target certain members of society, for whatever reasons. Sadly enough, truth sometimes becomes over-shadowed once the power of the press is administered, in that a rumor can become a fact if it's heard or publicized enough. For example, in an article published in the New York Daily News ( http://www.nydailynews.com/1998-10-30/News_and_Views/Daily_Dish/a-9401.asp )in October of 1998, it is reported that Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, one of America's leading film couples, were half a million dollars richer following their libel case against a London newspaper that had claimed that their marriage was a sham simply to hide their homosexuality. In a statement to the press, Cruise told the paper that filing suit had been, "the last recourse against those that printed vicious lies about me and my family..." In this example, it is an individual conquering what a publication in England had said about him and his wife, leaving him with explanations to be made to the public and a tarnished reputation in the eyes of whomever had chosen to believe the newspaper's so-called information.

Oprah Winfrey news stories

In another example, Oprah Winfrey wins a lawsuit filed against her by a group of Texas beef producers, who had claimed that Oprah's negative comments about beef had caused sufficient damage to the beef industry's profits. In an article published in the New York Times on February 18, 1998 it is stated, "The ruling late Tuesday by Judge Mary Lou Robinson of U.S. District Court was a big victory for Ms. Winfrey, the popular television talk-show host, who was being sued. . . of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease, to the American beef supply.... The Texas cattleman had sued Ms. Winfrey in Amarillo, Texas, the heart of the cattle-feed producing industry, saying she had wrongfully defamed American beef and cost the cattle industry millions of dollars." Despite the libel-food laws enacted, there was not enough evidence found to convict Oprah of having maliciously set out to harm the beef industry's reputation. In this example, in contrast to the Tom Cruise incident, it is a major organization pursuing an individual for tarnishing its reputation by comments that were made against it on national television. See Yahoo news index of stories on this lawsuit.

The Oprah Winfrey and Tom Cruise incidents also help to illustrate two points: 1) No matter the legal outcome of a case, comments which are published, however true or false, stay in the minds of people, having long-lasting effects against those who were targeted and 2) as evident in both cases, it is the *malicious* intent on the part of the accused which crosses the line and can subject an individual or an organization to a libel suit. It is that malicious, vindictive aspiration which usually proves to be irrevocably hurtful and painful, one reason why something as trivial as a few words can lead to long-lasting, unmeasurable damage to its victims.

comment written Sep. 19, 1999 by Joy Brunetti <http://www.acusd.edu/~brunetti>