1. WKAK-AM broadcasts a call-in talk show. Talk show host Harry Hotair opened the show with the following editorial:
"Carl Controversy, longtime critic of UO sports has published a new book titled Quack Back. It is being advertised as 'an inside look at the ugly underside of sports at the UO.' Well, the really ugly part of this book is Controversy. His book is full of sloppy journalism and flat-out falsehoods. I know for a fact that he made up quotes. Why Coach Bobby Bodybuilder told me that Controversy never talked to him, yet Controversy quotes Bobby as saying that half of the Duck football team are on steroids. The only word in the book you can believe is "the." All the rest of it is a pack of lies. But people are buying it as if it is the gospel truth. Why do people believe this garbage?
I'm going to try and get Controversy on the show, but I doubt he'll accept the invitation. Guys like that always hide from the truth."
Following the opening editorial, Hotair broadcast a phone call from Frank Fan. Fan said, "From what I hear, sloppy journalism is the least of Controversy's problems. It's no wonder that he doesn't get the quotes right. If you drank as much beer as he does, you'd have a hard time standing up let alone writing sentences. Most nights he gets tossed out of a couple of bars in Eugene. The guy is a drunk. I'd never buy a book that guy wrote."
a. Controversy files a libel suit against Hotair, KWAK-AM and Fan. All of the defendants claim the fair comment defense protects the broadcast. Will the Fair Comment defense be successful? YES OR NO? Explain your answer.
b. Larry Linebacker, a member of the football team, also files a libel suit against Hotair and Kwak-AM. Has Linebacker been defamed? YES OR NO? Explain your answer.
2. You work in the advertising department at Zoom, a new magazine for "young women on the move." You are working on a new campaign for the magazine. One of your staff photographers has a photo of a student reading Zoom on the lawn outside South Eugene High School. The photographer saw the scene on his way into the office one day and took the photo. Unfortunately, he didn't get the student's name.
The photo is just what you need for your ad campaign, but you need a consent form from the young woman. Since you know that she is a student at South Eugene, you go to the school's office with her picture and ask for her name. The office staff tell you that they will not give you her name because it is protected under the exempt by other statute and the privacy exemptions of the state public records law. You argue that there is a public interest in disclosure; therefore the name must be released.
Will a "public interest" argument be successful? YES or NO? EXPLAIN YOUR ANSWER.
3. The Anywhere, Or., Board of Education is concerned about the behavior of fans at high school sporting events. Over the last three years, there have been a significant number of fights at football games, and several students have been arrested for drinking outside the school during basketball games. Following the most recent incident, a riot at a basketball game in February, the Board appointed a "fact finding team" to study the problem and report its finding to the board. The Board selected the members of the team from the community and authorized $10,000 of School Board money to fund the team's investigation and report. A group of parents filed a formal Public Records request with the fact finding team for "all records relating to the investigation of violence at school sports events," but the request was denied. The fact finding body said that it is not a public body.
Is the fact finding team a public body? YES OR NO? EXPLAIN YOUR ANSWER.
4. Dr. Sally Scalpel is a surgeon practicing in Portland. A story in McKensie Monthly reported that Scalpel's license to practice medicine was revoked by the State
after the State Medical Licensing Board found her to be "incompetent." According to the story, the Board had received 25 complaints over the last two years related to Scalpel's practice of medicine.
In fact, Scalpel had been the subject of 17 complaints in the last four years. During a hearing before the Medical Board, in which former patients testified that they had been harmed by Scalpel, she agreed to voluntarily give up her license to practice medicine in Oregon. In exchange for her surrendering her license, the Board closed the hearing without taking any final action.
Dr. Scalpel sued McKensie Monthly for libel. McKensie Monthly claims the report is substantially true and therefore Scalpel's case is without merit.
Will Scalpel be able to prove falsity? YES OR NO? Explain your answer.
5. In the State of Oregon, the federal constitutional right of access to courtrooms established in Richmond Newspapers v. Virginia extends to cameras in the court; therefore a judge can deny a request to televise a criminal trial only where the judge can show that cameras in the court present an imminent danger to the fair trial rights of criminal defendants.
True or False? Explain your answer.