An excerpt from Hiles v. CNN, decided yesterday by Judge Arenda L. Wright Allen (E.D. Va.), where plaintiff sued for libel in a CNN article (read the whole opinion for more):
Factual Allegations …
Although Plaintiff is referred to as a "rioter" in the Article, he alleges that he was never charged with or accused of rioting at the U.S. Capitol. Plaintiff further quotes definitions of "riot" from Virginia and federal law and alleges that his activities do not meet these definitions. CNN had made distinctions between rioters and demonstrators in prior reports, including when covering the 2015 Baltimore riots, when CNN analyst Mark Lamont Hill pointed out that not all demonstrators present were rioters. Likewise, in April 2021, Schneider had published an article differentiating conspiracy cases brought against about 20 members of paramilitary groups from "hundreds of rioters facing trespassing charges."
The Article also omits certain matters…. [Among others,] [t]he Facebook post quoted by the Article … is accompanied by "an obviously tongue-in-cheek" caption, "Feelin cute … might start a revolution later. IDK – in Capitol Hill." … The Article … omits the phrase "IDK" (short for "I don't know") from the Facebook post….
The Virginia Fair Report Privilege …
"Virginia's fair report privilege protects the publication of 'accounts of public proceedings or reports'—for example, records of judicial proceedings." … Here, the challenged statements all derive from publicly available court materials in Plaintiff's criminal case and are substantially accurate and fair abridgements of those materials….
