A college newspaper in San Diego published an article defaming one of the student leaders at the campus. It was titled "Carli Thomas is a Whore" and had a picture of her that had been altered. "The Koala" at UC San Diego is citing the First Amendment, naturally, but Thomas could take this to court and cite defamation...and win.
Apparently, this newspaper has a history of pushing the limits on the First Amendment and have insulted not only students, but faculty and administrators as well. The University itself can't do much against them since the school keeps itself separate from the publication because of First Amendment limitations. But that doesn't mean the law can't.
As a journalism graduate, in my professional opinion, this college paper is a joke. My school paper would never publish things like that. They actually have respect for the establishment it's permitted to run in. The actions of "The Koala" are immoral and they lose credibility, not mention it's unprofessional. As a newspaper, you run articles about the news, not insult people because you think they wronged you. You're in college, not elementary school. Grow up.
I hope this girl does push forward with a defamation of character lawsuit. It'll be pretty easy for her to show actual malice. She does have a strong case and she will win. And as punishment, I hope the court shuts the paper down for a minimum of a year. That way, it tarnishes their journalism backgrounds for future employers, and all the aspiring journalists who wanted to get their start at the paper, can lash out at the people responsible.
The First Amendment protects college newspapers to an extent. There are limits. You can't just go around defaming people and think you're protected against retaliation. It doesn't work that way. At my school, we were required to take a class in Mass Media Law, maybe UC San Diego should too. And if it's already required, then maybe they should look into getting a better professor for it because clearly their journalism students think they can get away with saying anything.
To view the article, click here and scroll to the second page, you can't miss it.
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