Libel Charges against The National Enquirer

The tabloid press specializes in sensational , obliges on public figures which usually have "a kernel of truth, [which they] stretch and embellish . . . so much that the consummate product bears no resemblance to what they started with."

Their motivation for doing so, so capacious as they muckle get away with the practice, is to sell copy. When she was asked most the frequency of such practices, a reporter for The Sun, who inaccurately inform that a 101 year old woman, Nellie Mitchell, was pregnant, utter in sworn testimony in an Arkansas court in 1992: "I'd say about 90 percent of my stories are get rid of the top of my head."

U.S. News & World Report in 1992 describe the contents of a typical edition of The enquirer, as follows: " eminence gossip mixed with quacky diets and bizarre twists on current events" with headlines uniform "JFK was killed by a Russian agent . . . Posing as Lee Harvey Oswald." The enquirer gave the O.J. Simpson trial intensive coverage, was on the face before the coroner, assigned 20 reporters to the case and scooped the major newspapers with tidbits such as O.J.'s purchase of a knife. That case increased its circulation in 1995 by 500,000 per week.

The Enquirer was involved as a defendant in the late 1970s and 1980s in a number of civil law suits which alleged it was liable for denigration or invasion of character. Libel is defamation in create verbally form. The number of smirch

It would appear that the Enquirer and the other tabloids suddenly have their hands full dealing with cases brought by celebrities, some of whom, such as Taylor, Murphy and Eastwood, the Enquirer had defeated or outmaneuvered in the past. The worm is at least beginning to turn. All it took was some willpower and money. Many of these celebrities can outlast the tabloids because they are richer than they are.

Fields, Howard. "Media Won a Record 40% of Libel Cases in Past Two Years." Publisher's Weekly, 8 family line 1989, 10.

Gertz v.

Robert Welch Inc., 418 U.S. 323 (1974).

The Enquirer agreed to a settlement of a libel and defamation of character suit brought against it in 1990 by Elizabeth Taylor relating to an article dealing with Liz' hospitalization for pneumonia in which the article said that she suffered from lupus and brought hard drink into her hospital room.

David Copperfield has sued the Enquirer for $10 million for an article which said that the magician had stuck his hand down the cleavage of a bad-tempered model at a party. That case is pending.

"Libel Awards are Growing." Wall Street Journal, 9 February 1996, B2.

The Supreme Court in 1974 had indicated that the states could set their own standards of proof in defamation actions involving cliquish parties. New York, for example, permits them to succeed if the plaintiff can prove that the statements were make "in a grossly irresponsible manner without payable consideration" for reasonable standards-in effect, gross negligence.

The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc. Media virtue Reporter, Washington, D.C.: BNA, 1992, 1679.

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