{"id":21066,"date":"2014-07-19T14:14:17","date_gmt":"2014-07-19T18:14:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sidebarforplaintiffs.naomifein.net\/?p=21066"},"modified":"2014-07-19T14:32:37","modified_gmt":"2014-07-19T18:32:37","slug":"defamation-on-the-internet-bad-love-affair-trashed-on-blogs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sidebarforplaintiffs.naomifein.net\/?p=21066","title":{"rendered":"Defamation on the internet: Bad love affair trashed on blogs"},"content":{"rendered":"

This New York Times piece on a love affair gone bad <\/a>\u2212 and the guy was trashed on blogs \u2212 brings some perhaps alarming reality to anyone who thinks that suing for defamation on a blog is a slam-dunk:<\/p>\n

For all the inquiries they have facilitated into humanity\u2019s highest intellectual realms, blogs have also proven themselves good incubators for petty squabbling, savage back-stabbing and ad hominem warfare of all varieties. The same, of course, is true of academia. So if, as a recent lawsuit alleges, an editorial associate at Cornell University\u2019s Sage School of Philosophy took to the Internet in 2012 to savage a former lover, it may not be surprising that things got out of control.<\/em><\/p>\n

The accusations \u2014 too scabrous to be reprinted here \u2014 were spread around dozens of websites, including anonymous blogs and professional ratings sites. They excoriated every supposed aspect of the man\u2019s identity, from his sexual proclivities to his physical endowment to his professional ethics to his ex-wife and disabled child.<\/em><\/p>\n

John B. Wender, the architect who was the subject of those accusations, filed a lawsuit for $1.25 million last year against Louise Silberling, a woman he said he had met online and gotten together with three times, citing a \u201cmalicious campaign to utterly destroy plaintiff\u2019s personal and professional reputation.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

But you see Mr. Wender’s lawsuit has been dismissed, in large part, because:<\/p>\n

\u201cA statement is defamatory if it is false and \u2018tends to expose the plaintiff to public contempt, ridicule, aversion or disgrace,\u2019\u00a0\u201d Justice Anil C. Singh of State Supreme Court in Manhattan wrote.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cOpinions cannot be proven untrue,\u201d the judge continued, \u201cand they are constitutionally protected.\u201d The statements against Mr. Wender were withering, the judge agreed, but according to an earlier case, \u201cloose, figurative or hyperbolic statements, even if deprecating the plaintiff, are not actionable.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

And if Mr. Wender loses the entirety of this lawsuit, the defendant will without question come at him for reimbursement of her legal costs. Because that’s what can happen when you lose a lawsuit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This New York Times piece on a love affair gone bad \u2212 and the guy was trashed on blogs \u2212 brings some perhaps alarming reality to anyone who thinks that suing for defamation on a blog is a slam-dunk: For … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[337],"tags":[525,610],"class_list":["post-21066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-legal-news","tag-defamation-lawsuit","tag-internet-defamation"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t