First Amendment Handbook [Back to contents page] [RCFP Home Page]

Other newsgathering concerns

Subjects of news stories who cannot utilize traditional legal theories to sue the media sometimes sue news organizations under other causes of action, such as fraud or trespass. These claims have proceeded with varying success. In a case over a hidden-camera investigation by ABC News that revealed a grocery chain's unsafe practices, a federal appeals court rejected a fraud claim but allowed nominal damages for claims of trespass and breach of the duty of loyalty. The court said that ABC News employees who had gained employment with the grocer and videotaped nonpublic areas of the store could be liable for only $2 in damages.¹⁶

Journalists should be mindful of privacy issues when engaging in "ride-alongs" with law enforcement officials. In 1997, the U.S. Court of Appeals (9th Cir.) held that members of a television news camera crew who taped the execution of a search warrant on private property were so closely aligned with the law enforcement officers that they became "state actors" who can be held liable for civil rights violations. The Supreme Court reviewed the case and held that police officers could be liable for bringing the media inside a home, but the Court declined to rule on the liability of the media defendants. The case ultimately settled out of court.¹⁷

Notes

16. Food Lion, Inc. v. Capital Cities/ABC, Inc., 194 F.3d 505 (4th Cir. 1999); see also WDIA Corp. v. McGraw-Hill, Inc., No. C-1-93-448 (S.D. Ohio Dec. 18, 1999) (refusing to award punitive damages in case against magazine found to have committed fraud in the pursuit of news).

17. Berger v. Hanlon, 129 F.3d 505 (9th Cir. 1997), judgment vacated, 119 S. Ct. 1706 (1999), on remand, 188 F.3d 1155 (1999).

Next section: Invasion of Privacy: Defenses