Yellow Journalism From The Daily Beast

[herdgadfly]

In crude attempt to rope a second Marshall football player into the Steward Butler fiasco, The Daily Beast tried to find out the name of the driver with Butler when he punched out the gay guys - even though the driver was not involved in the attack.

Told that the driver was involved in the NFL draft by someone on the Marshall coaching staff, the brilliant fools found Darryl Roberts name among the drafted and blatantly inferred that Swag was the guy - as if getting drafted was all the proof they needed.

http://tinyurl.com/kkgzsnh

 

[Trebel06]

In crude attempt to rope a second Marshall football player into the Steward Butler fiasco, The Daily Beast tried to find out the name of the driver with Butler when he punched out the gay guys - even though the driver was not involved in the attack.

Told that the driver was involved in the NFL draft by someone on the Marshall coaching staff, the brilliant fools found Darryl Roberts name among the drafted and blatantly inferred that Swag was the guy - as if getting drafted was all the proof they needed.

http://tinyurl.com/kkgzsnh

The earliest version of that story said we were the Marshall Bisons and that we had no players drafted in the NFL.. Unfortunately, for Swag he's getting his name drug through the mud a little here and he can't really do anything about it

 

[Herdon2]

How about a charge of slander since there is no proof of him being the driver? I would pursue it if I were Swag

 

[herdit44]

How about a charge of slander since there is no proof of him being the driver? I would pursue it if I were Swag

how would you recommend him pursue it since his name was never mentioned as the driver, only mentioned as a player that was drafted?

 

[Trebel06]

How about a charge of slander since there is no proof of him being the driver? I would pursue it if I were Swag

Well one it wouldn't be slander since it's the written word it'd be libel.. And under libel laws Swag would have to prove that what was said caused him actual harm (ie cost him a job/money making opportunity or ruined relationships) and that what was printed was false.. Technically, while the way it is written implies Swag was the driver it doesn't explicitly state anything other than the fact that he was drafted in the 7th round of the NFL draft by the Pats which is a true statement.. Also since Swag is now a member of the NFL it is likely that he would be considered by the courts to be a Public Figure.. Which means proving he was defamed in a libel case becomes even harder because now not only does he have to prove what was said was untrue, and did damage to his character and reputation but he also has to prove that it was done with Actual Malice (with a reckless disregard for the truth) meaning that he would have to prove that the reporter purposely wrote what he wrote to harm Swag and knowing that what was written was unture. That's virtually impossible to prove in court and it's these libel laws that allow tabloids to operate everyday. There is more to it then this as well but this is the basic gist of how libel works.. Long story short it would be more trouble than it was worth to sue because Swag isn't likely to win and then he'd just be out court costs.. Plus it would just shine more attention on this worm of a "journalist"

BTW it should be known that I'm no lawyer, but I know libel law pretty well as a someone who used to work as a professional newspaper reporter and now works in TV.. it's something we covered extensively in undergrad and grad school. But, again I'm no lawyer so someone who is may know libel even better and think Swag has more of a case than I do.. But I see a case that is a a slam dunk for the Daily Beast writer on a couple of different levels.. (The fact what he said was true, despite what was implied and the fact that Swag would likely now be considered a public figure.) Those don't bode well for him to have a chance to win.. If I was him I'd just ignore it and let it go away.

 

[herdalicious]

The three criteria for a public figure to successfully sue for libel are inaccuracy, malicious intent, and prior knowledge of falsity. Its really hard to pull off in the US.

 

[Trebel06]

The three criteria for a public figure to successfully sue for libel are inaccuracy, malicious intent, and prior knowledge of falsity. Its really hard to pull off in the US.

Extremely hard.. almost impossible lol

 

[Herdon2]

Yeah libel was what I was trying to think of.