Taking a current event and turning it into a teaching tool is an effective way to start a lesson after a long holiday weekend. Jeff Green's libel lawsuit against the Miami Herald and the St. Pete Times has made a great transition into our Media Law unit of study.
In the AP article linked below, all the key words for libel are mentioned: public figure, correction policy, sourcing, editorial comment, etc.... We read and analyzed the article in class, then studied the basic facts about libel and actual malice. Afterward, the students had to reread the article searching for those key points that make a libel lawsuit valid. They each had to defend their position on whether or not, based on one article, they thought Green had an argument against the two newspapers.
Tomorrow, we continue using the article to study the defenses to libel. Then, we compare these points to the rationale they used in deciding whether or not they would pursue the case. A computer lab web quest will also be performed to Google any other current outstanding libel issues.
AP Story via Fox News
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