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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Oct 2005
    Location
    Washington
    Posts
    2

    Default Small town politics gone bad

    Our town newspaper has been running a series of obviously biased articles about a mayoral candidate, who is a friend of mine.

    One article was a very large front page lead about the water usage of the candidate, intending to show proof that he wasn't really living in town, making the point that he only bought the place and moved into city limits 3 weeks prior to the 1-year requirement just to run for office.

    In the article they went into excruciating detail about water usage, right down to a toilet flush. While they checked the opponents water usage, they never checked out his actual residency/registration dates, simply stating that all the information he gave the newspaper about his residency was correct.

    As it turns out, the following week in a letter to the editor it was revealed that the opponent actually registered to vote in the city within 2 weeks of filing for candidacy for his previous post on the city council. Essentially doing the same thing they are accusing the first candidate of.

    Before that, in another even larger front page article – with double decker headlines – the newspaper reported about a lawsuit that was filed but immediately dropped by a man who was a former police chief.

    The suit was dropped because the information he was given was incorrect. However, the article goes on and on with the ex-police chief's uncorroborated statements and reasons why he filed the suit with comments like "when someone comes along like this ... well my hair just went up on my neck" or "it brought out the old cop in me real quick."

    The former police chief also stated "It's nothing personal ... I'm no fan of (the opponent) but he checked out OK." As it was later revealed, he must not have checked out the opponent, and, his name was printed in this same newspaper, in an advertisement by the opponent as being a supporter, just one week prior.

    Other statements made by the former police chief included comparisons of dead people and prisoners voting.

    I think the newspaper shows obvious bias, does this candidate have grounds for libel?

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
    Location
    Behind a Desk
    Posts
    98,846

    Default Defamation of Mayoral Candidate

    Was anything they printed actually untrue? Bias isn't enough for a libel case - the allegation must be untrue.

    Also, as this is within the context of a political race, it seems likely that the mayoral candidate would be treated as a public figure. If that is the case, it is not enough to simply show untruth - the plaintiff would have to show either that the newspaper actually knew that the allegations it printed were untrue, or acted with reckless disregard for the truth.

    The mayoral candidate would likely benefit from discussing this situation with a local lawyer, and formulating a strategy to deal with this information (which very well may not involve litigation).

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Oct 2005
    Location
    Washington
    Posts
    2

    Default

    Yes, I think so. They stated that they had checked out the opponent's residency and voter registration and found nothing inconsistent, but it was revealed there were indeed inconsistencies found by another party looking at the same information. Wouldn't that mean they either lied about investigating or lied about what they found?

    And, although it was the former police chief who lied when he said he was "no fan," the newspaper didn't mention his previous public declaration of support for the opposing candidate in the article. It seems more than just negligence.

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