GENNIFER FLOWERS, Plaintiff, v. JAMES CARVILLE, GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, LITTLE, BROWN & COMPANY, Defendants., 310 F. Supp. 2d 1157

Summary

Plaintiff asserted defendants ignored obvious warning signs that the tapes she made, which regarded her alleged conversations with the President of the United States, could be genuine and that defendants had a motive and intent to defame her. Defendants argued the language they used in their statements contained the material import or a reasonable interpretation of what the news reports found. They acknowledged their books made it clear they were dismayed by plaintiff's actions and were happy to believe her story was false; however, they noted that bias was not enough to show malice. The court held that the "gist or sting" of the news reports was that the tapes were probably suspect, not that they were probably genuine. At most the qualifying language made the news reports ambiguous, in which case defendants' statements were a rational interpretation of that ambiguity. These facts were not enough to establish malice. Furthermore, one possible interpretation of the news reports was that...