ESPN’s ‘Gist’ Defeats Ex-Stanford Coach’s Defamation Suit
Writing that the “gist” of ESPN’s reporting last year on workplace investigations into former Stanford head football coach Troy Taylor was “substantially true,” a federal judge this week dismissed Taylor’s defamation lawsuit against ESPN. The ruling by U. S.
Magistrate Judge Virginia K. DeMarchi is a reminder that media companies in the modern era are afforded broad latitude in reporting on and commenting about news events. More from Sportico.
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Even though Judge DeMarchi reasoned that Taylor is not a public figure and thus did not need to prove actual malice, Taylor still came up short in establishing that ESPN’s statements about him were sufficiently false. To that point, Judge DeMarchi reasoned that some of the statements Taylor contends are defamatory were statements of opinion. Defamation claims must involve statements that are verifiable, such as an untrue assertion of fact, whereas opinion is not verifiable and is protected by the First Amendment.
One of the articles challenged by Taylor was written by ESPN senior writer Dan Wetzel. DeMarchi explained the article “does not purport to be original reporting” regarding the workplace investigations. Instead, it reflects an “informal tenor” and the expression of Wetzel’s “personal subjective viewpoints, which cannot be proved true or false,” about Taylor and Stanford football.
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