October 10, 1994

PUBLISHERS' MEMO
NYPA Information Update

LIBEL ACTION AGAINST RIVER REPORTER DISMISSED For those of you following the libel action brought against The River Reporter (Narrowsburg), New York Supreme Court Justice Vincent G. Bradley ruled in favor of The River Reporter last week, dismissing the plaintiff's complaint on the grounds it had no legal merit. The River Reporter had published an April Fool's parody edition which contained a parody referring to the plaintiff, Mr. Schulman. Mr. Schulman had served as Village Justice and Village Attorney in Monticello, NY. In his decision Justice Bradley wrote, "The article which Mr. Schulman complains of is so patently ridiculous that no person reading it could take it seriously." The judge held that the satire of a public figure does not support a claim for libel or for the intentional infliction of emotional distress in the absence of a showing of actual malice. Actual malice requires a showing of a falsehood asserted as truth. Although the references to Mr. Schulman in the parody were patently false, they clearly were not represented as truth, and the action was dismissed.

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