• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, Yesterday

Here is a hard-won lesson that editors and publishers alike should study.

The Jackson Hole (Wyoming) News & Guide was hit with a $25 million defamation suit over an article it published on an Eagle Scout project run by an enterprising young man. 

The problem was that the story said the lad’s father was physically abusive, according to WyoFile. 

The father sued, saying the charge was run without attribution, implying “a factual determination,” WyoFile reports.

News & Guide apologized and withdrew the article, titled ““Words are power,” which ran in May, WyoFile continues. However, this reporter was unable to locate the apology. 

The journalistic lesson (Journalism 101, in fact) is that allegations have to be checked. 

“Why a paper anywhere in the U.S. would want to draft an article that affirmatively states that someone who is a private individual is a child abuser, without doing enormous amounts of verification work and being certain that they are correct is beyond my understanding,” said Jason Edward Ochs, the Jackson attorney, according to WyoFile. “And unfortunately, that’s what happened here.”

Another issue is that even a settlement for far less than the $25 million can be “devastating” for a small publisher or business, said Bruce Moats, former counsel of the Wyoming Press Association, according to WyoFile. 

(That would be especially true for a small publication without libel insurance.)  

Big-city editors should not be smug about this. It can happen to anyone in this age of overstretched editing teams.