Libel law is something that I investigated a bit in high school. As I mentioned in a previous post, my paper had a situation with a possible libel case at the end of my senior year that ultimately did not result in a complaint or court case.
However, this does not mean I am an expert on the laws relating to libel. Actually, I found myself in a rabbit hole this week looking at various aspects of libel in the modern era of journalism. While in this rabbit hole I started to investigate SLAPP suits (Like the one John Oliver was in a couple of years ago) and why they are as common as they are.
So, first things first, what is a SLAPP Suit? A SLAPP Suit—or Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation suit— is a type of lawsuit used to silence public opposition, often my major companies. In the John Oliver example, Bob Murray of Murray energy sued Oliver over a segment of his show that exposed wrongdoing by his company.
Murray claimed that Oliver’s description of him as a “Geriatric Dr. Evil” was slanderous as well as many other claims made by Oliver that were clearly satirical in nature. Murray’s goal with this suit was not to win the litigation but to cause Oliver and his team to have a strenuous relationship with their ownership network HBO and to prevent the segment from airing again.
Another goal of SLAPP suits is to bleed the defendant party dry of the money required to defend against the claim in court and to cost the defendant a great deal of money in legal fees—this is to discourage any speech like the case that is in litigation from any other media outlets or persons.
So, what can the public do to prevent SLAPP suits? In many states, there is legislation that is attempting to discourage SLAPP suits by introducing a new standard for cases to be heard. In states like California, where there is anti-SLAPP legislation, if a case is found to have no validity in libel law, the plaintiff in the case then incurs the legal costs of the defendant.
Personally, I think that anti-SLAPP legislation is a terrific way to support smaller media entities by allowing them to do a deeper investigation into local companies’ and politicians’ wrongdoings. Anti-SLAPP legislation allows media organizations and small reporters to do their jobs of being the watchdog of the elite.
