This is a major free press case that has been widely misunderstood, especially by the news media. The Los Angeles Times, for example, called it a "huge setback" for freedom of the press. Under the heading, "Supreme Court Strips Away "Opinion' as Libel Defense," the Times announced that the Court had unanimously demolished "a widely used media defense against libel suits, ruling that a writer or speaker may be sued for statements that express opinion." The Times censured the Court for having acted "with astonishing recklessness … when it overturned nearly two decades of precedent and ruled that the First …
Insight on the News; November 5, 2001
News Media and the Law; July 1, 1999
Daily Mail (London); June 11, 2008
Portland Press Herald (Portland, ME); October 11, 2002
Belfast Telegraph; September 23, 2009
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