FishbowlDC: Nah Mang, We Didn't Libel That Lady With The Social Diseases, The One Who Was 'DTF'

My goodness, it is Journamalism Day here on yr Wonket! First we explored the plaintive coos of wordsmithery-maker Peggy Noonan. Then we yelled at The Atlantic and some mean lady from NPR. Then we splained defamation and invasion of privacy to James O'Keefe, AND THEN we splained satire to some sad little Onion. Who do we think we are, Spiers-era Gawker?

And now, we are stealing the work product of New York Mag, as it does us all the great service today of bringing to the Internet FishbowlDC's filing denying that they libeled that lady -- you remember, that lady they libeled? The one who is suing them for claiming she has chlamydia or something and is also a huge huge whore. NOT GUILTY! says FishbowlDC. CASE DISMISSED! Well, you heard them! THEY SAID CASE DISMISSED.

Let us remind ourselves of why some publicist filed a lawsuit against the universally beloved FishbowlDC and two of its well-regarded staff:

Every week for a year, they called her a whore. But unlike when we at your Wonket call people whores, this publicist lady is not a public official or even a public figure. She's just a publicist lady who seems fun, and also attractive! And those are things, it seems, that Fishbowl's poor-man's editrix, Betsy Rothstein, apparently does not like! 

That is what we in the news business call "hooboy get out your checkbook." And yet, FishbowlDC is fighting that nice lady's suit, because

"Defendants deny that the 'blog' postings on FishbowlDC.com identified in the Complaint constitute actionable claims for defamation or false light invasion of privacy," writes attorney Mark Bailen. "To the contrary, the commentary in the postings, when viewed together with the photographs of Plaintiff taken in public places that accompanied the postings, represents satire, opinion, hyperbole and other expressions of speech squarely protected by the First Amendment and District of Columbia law, or is otherwise not defamatory."

Oh, well, when you put it that way, it is definitely satire, opinion, hyperbole and other expressions of speech squarely protected by the First Amendment, to call a publicist a whore every week for a year.

When the head honcho of a media outlet writes like this, you may want to put her in charge of making the office banana muffins and keep her away from writing.

[ NYMag ]