How does the NY Daily News get away with this?

[mrmitchell]

First of all, the story: Mother is accused of smothering her three children to death.
Story from a sensible source: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/...n1252974.shtml

New York Daily News: http://www.nydailynews.com/front/sto...p-328297c.html

"THE MONSTER WHO KILLED HER KIDS"
"The monster mom who smothered her three young kids in an Arkansas trailer allegedly blamed her husband in New York for driving her to the shocking murders."

Lawyers of Apolyton, isn't this libel until she is proven guilty in a court of law?

I understand the Daily News uses sensationalist style fairly often--do they ever get bitten when someone is declared innocent and comes back to sue their ass off?

EDIT: Personally looking at the story, I think it's pretty obvious she did it and is mentally unhealthy, but shouldn't they wait until after she's convicted to headline a story calling her a monster?

[Sava]

excuse me... but aren't you being unfair?

I think the thread should be titled "How does the NY Daily News ALLEGEDLY get away with this?"

[Imran Siddiqui]

@ Sava

No, it isn't libel. This is a tabloid, so it is understood that they aren't being totally serious journalists.

Anyways, since the "monster" is now a public figure, she has to prove the Daily News knew or should have known that the information was false.

She's a public figure, so more leeway.

[snoopy369]

I'm actually not sure that's quite true. She wasn't voluntarily a public figure, so I don't think that rule applies.

However, I think she'll have to prove in court that it WAS untrue, iirc - so if she's found not guilty (entirely), she can sue, and possibly win depending on the jury (they can agree a preponderance of the evidence shows she's guilty, but not 100%), but if she's found guilty, she can't ...

[Proteus_MST]

We have the same problem with the german tabloid "Bild".

There are several cases where "Bild" publishes things which are untrue and often damaging for the reputation of other people.
But most of the times they get away with it, as they keep their legal department well funded and especially ordinary people can´t afford the lawyers you need to successfully sue Bild.

We even have a blog where the most blatant lies and errors of Bild get published every day

http://www.bildblog.de/

[GePap]

Re: How does the NY Daily News get away with this?

Originally posted by mrmitchell
First of all, the story: Mother is accused of smothering her three children to death.
Story from a sensible source: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/...n1252974.shtml

New York Daily News: http://www.nydailynews.com/front/sto...p-328297c.html

"THE MONSTER WHO KILLED HER KIDS"
"The monster mom who smothered her three young kids in an Arkansas trailer allegedly blamed her husband in New York for driving her to the shocking murders."

Lawyers of Apolyton, isn't this libel until she is proven guilty in a court of law?

I understand the Daily News uses sensationalist style fairly often--do they ever get bitten when someone is declared innocent and comes back to sue their ass off?

EDIT: Personally looking at the story, I think it's pretty obvious she did it and is mentally unhealthy, but shouldn't they wait until after she's convicted to headline a story calling her a monster?

Jesus, I wonder what the NY Post had...

(You see, of the two NY Tabloids, the News is the "sane" one)