The Washington Court of Appeals concluded last week in Carter v. Jones (written by Judge George Fearing, joined by Judges John Cooney and Megan Murphy) that, among other things, a Medium post by Mary Jones accusing Micahn Carter of rape—see pp. 24-29 of the opinion for the full text of the post—was nonactionable opinion. A short excerpt from the long decision:
Micahn Carter complains about a July 21, 2021, blog posted by Mary Jones. In the post, Jones did not speak with caution or qualify her accusation of rape with any statement implying apparency or equivocality. She did not detail the penetration that occurred. This factor weighs against her communication as an opinion.
Nevertheless, … [t]he law [also] directs us to consider the medium employed and the intended audience. Mary Jones posted her blog on the platform Medium that allows writers and bloggers to share their ideas and stories with a wide audience…. The average reader understands communications on platforms such as Medium to contain subjective views of the writer and the writing is often subject to exaggerations.
In her July 21, 2021, blog post, Mary Jones did more than accuse Micahn Carter of raping her. She provided detailed facts of Carter's grooming her in the preceding months. She narrated that Carter talked about her exuding sexuality and his dreaming of her. She wrote that Carter, on another day, grabbed her bottom, after which he sobbed in sorrow. Between the two TLC meetings, he aggressively embraced her. He then apologized and asked Jones if she would act weird. Jones described her thinking, during this time, of being uncomfortable from the advances of Carter.
