State Sen. John Blatchford filed suit in Nuckolls County Superior Court Friday in which the Nelson Daily Tribune was named the defendant.
It was a libel suit. Blatchford, in his complaint, said that the Daily Tribune's article of May 15 that read in part, "State Sen. John Blatchford has carried his nephew Kevin Simpson on his payroll for the past two years at a salary of $28,500 annually even though the nephew reports for work only one day a week," was false, misleading and malicious.
In his complaint, Blatchford said that his nephew, a lawyer, is indeed on his payroll. But he is paid an annual consulting fee of $2,850.
Blatchford is asking for $200,000 compensatory damages and $1 million in punitive damages.
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Blatchford told a news conference that "the Daily Tribune has been out to get me for years. Everyone knows that the Daily Tribune is a conservative Republican newspaper. Its publisher and editor have never appreciated my liberal stances on various issues."
Henry Moret, editor of the Daily Tribune, referred all questions to the newspaper's attorney. The attorney, however, could not be reached for comment.
Under existing American libel law, the state senator, as a public official, will have to prove that the newspaper acted with actual malice—knowing the story to be false or publishing it in reckless disregard for the truth. Public officials cannot collect libel damages merely by showing that the article was false.
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Exercise 22.7
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2007 McGraw-Hill Higher Education