Miles Out?

While I defer to your legal expertise on most matters, are you sure the medium isn't considered? I swear I remember a case study from school in which a plaintiff successfully argued the immediacy of some form of new media (this was a few years before Twitter, so it wasn't that) raised the stakes on actual malice. If I am wrong, then I see your point, though I still don't think there's enough to win a case.

The reason I say it's petty is because, well, it's Les Miles suing some idiot kid. It absolutely would be petty for Miles to try to make an example out of some idiot kid. I would enjoy watching it, but it would be petty.

The other issue at play is that repeating a libelous statement is itself libel. So does Matt1735 get called in? Does every message board and Twitter user who discussed the story get called in? Certainly, if you're trying to win damages, there are people of more wealth than this kid who repeated his rumor.

 

Sure would appear that way. Kid comes across as a five-alarm flaming douchebag.

 

So if you've got a twitter account with 238 followers, all you need to do is make shit up and not only will you skyrocket to 30,000 followers but other media outlets will pick your slop up and run with it.
Is this a great country, or what?

 

What does Twitter have to do with this country? What media outlets picked up this story?

 

SportsJournalists.com picked up this story and SportsJournalists.com is an incubator for sports journalism.
How many times has a thread started here only to end up on talk radio, in a column or a comment or story on ESPN?

 

Please link us to the media outlets that pursued this story. And something more substantial than Bruce Feldman and a couple others getting on Twitter and saying, basically, "Guys, this rumor is stupid. Don't believe it."

 

Libel is defined in California as making a "statement of fact." Not opinion. That's why it is recommended that you always say "allegedly" or "in my opinion."

 

An unnamed ESPN source says he won't believe the story until he can copy it off Wikipedia.

 

I thought journalism had already gone down that path. Look at how many false stories there have been all over TV networks the last couple of years, or sports rumors started on Twitter. All it takes is a tweet or a made up video on YouTube and away they go.

 

And then all the editors say: "Well, we have to report it because they reported it."

 

If you're interested, this knucklehead shows no remorse, and claims he's already been offered two jobs because of this.

http://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2013/3/4/4062526/les-miles-rumor

 

"Hey, this celebrity stuff is easy!"