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Midterm #2 - J385 - Winter 99 |
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Midterm #2 - J385 - Winter 99 |
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1. Sally Pitch, a researcher for Hard Sell, an advertising agency in Portland, Oregon, is doing research on the buying habits of recently married couples. She discovers that several state agencies have detailed information about the products purchased by newly married couples as well as health and other information relevant to her research. She files a request with several agencies asking for all records concerning the buying habits, health and any other relevant information about recently married couples. All of the agencies receiving the request deny it, citing the personal privacy exemption in the Oregon Public Records law.
a. Under Oregon public records law, what standards must be met when an agency uses the personal privacy exemption to deny access to information?
b. Will Sally Pitch be granted access to the requested information? Yes or No? Explain your answer.
2. Tommy Tre is one of the best basketball players in the NBA. Last winter the Portland Trail Blazers traded four players to bring Tre to Portland. Several days before the first day of the new season, KWAK-TV in Eugene reported that Tre was a suspect in a stock fraud scheme involving a number of current and former NBA players. In the same story, it was reported the Tre had been suspected of a similar crime when he was in college.
Tre files a libel suit against KWAK-TV. He claims that the story was false. KWAK argues that the suit should be dismissed because the story was "substantially true," and Tre is a limited public figure who will not be able to prove actual malice.
Is Tre a limited public figure? YES or NO? Explain your answer.
3. KWAK-TV broadcasts a call-in talk show. Cally Controversy, a long-time critic of the University of Oregon was a guest on the show shortly after the Duck's visit to the Hula Bowl. When talk show host Harry Hotair asked her if she was proud to be a graduate of the UO, she responded, "I was never so ashamed to be a Duck in all my life. Some of the cheerleaders were an embarrassment. Why, they don't have any idea of how to lead a cheer. They don’t know the words to the UO fight song, and and two of them ought to cut down of the potato chips, if you know what I mean. They are the worst cheerleaders we've had in all the years I've been going to football games!"
Four (two men and two woman) of the eight members of the UO cheerleading squad file libel suits against Cally Controversy and WKAK-TV.
a. Can any of the plaintiffs prove identification? YES OR NO? Explain your answer.
b. Cally claims the defense of fair comment. Will it be successful? YES OR NO? Explain your answer.
4. Sam Slick, a vice-president for corporate planning, is leaving DOMORE Corp. after 10 years with the company. A press release from DOMORE announced his resignation and said that he was "leaving to pursue other promising opportunities."
Debbie Deadline, a reporter for the Eugene Monthly called Larry Quote, the corporation’s chief public information officer. Deadline asked Quote what is "really going on. Whenever I see that ‘pursuing other opportunities’ stuff I know that the guy is in hot water." Quote responded, "Look Debbie, you know I can’t talk about it. Let’s just say that Slick is getting out just in time."
The next month the Monthly ran a news brief about Slick’s departure under Deadline’s byline. The headline said, "Slick leaves under a cloud of suspicion." The story made no specific allegations of criminal or unethical behavior and reported that Slick had a new job in California. The last paragraph in the story said: "Sources close to DOMORE say that Slick was lucky to leave when he did. They believe that a long awaited investigation into the company’s business practices will soon begin."
Slick filed a libel suit against the Monthly. Was Slick defamed? YES or NO? Explain your answer.
