BUS624 DISCUSSION WEEK 2 6
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Ashford University *
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624
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Law
Date
Nov 24, 2024
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docx
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Uploaded by entbi2810
Hello class,
What arguments should the defendants make in an effort to avoid
defamation liability?
In order for the plaintiff to successfully argue defamation, there are several
conditions they must satisfy (Prenkert et al., 2022). First, they must prove
that the statements are both false and defamatory. In this case, I believe it
could be satisfied due to the targeted nature of the statements if Jones could
prove they were false. Next, the defamatory statement needs to be "of and
concerning" the plaintiff. While the book acknowledges that the exact scope
of this condition is beyond our level, I believe that this condition would be
satisfied as well. Lastly, the statements were published by a newspaper, so
no point going more in-depth on that condition.
In this case, the strongest defense the newspaper has is a lack of malice.
Malice is defined as "knowledge of falsity or reckless disregard for the truth"
(Prenkert et al., 2022, sec. 6-1). They could argue that due to Mr. Jones's
status as a public official (town attorney), there has to be malice, or
intentional falsehoods or recklessness. In order for Jones to prove defamation
in this case, he would have to prove that the newspaper knew for a fact that
he was not a man of substantial power in the local government with
malicious intentions and that they chose to publish the piece anyway.
Should Jones win his case?
I do not believe that Jones would win the case. In order for him to win, he
would have to clear the hurdle of proving malice due to his status as a public
official. He would have to prove that the newspaper knew that the
statements about him were false or that they were not concerned with the
truth one way or the other. While the statements were certainly
inflammatory, they could easily be read as expressive disagreement with
Jones's intentions or decisions. If the newspaper had been specific there
could have been grounds (claiming that Jones had done something he
hadn't), but since they kept it as general suspicions/aspersions there isn't
much standing for this case.
Sam
References
Prenkert, J. D., Barnes, A. J., Perry, J. E., Haugh, T., & Stemler, A. R.
(2022).
Business law: The ethical, global, and digital environment
(18th ed.).
McGraw-Hill.
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