Swift Boat Attackers Lose Their Cover?

A little noticed story this week:

From the Columbia Journalism Review:

In April, 1995, a special council meeting of the borough of Parkesburg, Pa., was called to address the infighting and name-calling that routinely disrupted regular sessions. Things got out of hand so quickly that the meeting was adjourned after three minutes.

Then, Councilman William T. Glenn Sr. cornered a reporter for the West Chester Daily Local News and gave him an earful. Council President James Norton and Mayor Alan M. Wolfe were "queers," "liars," "criminals," "draft dodgers" and "child molesters," Glenn told reporter Tom Kennedy.

The next day, Kennedy's story about the meeting was published under a headline reading "Slurs, insults drag town into controversy."

The mayor and councilman later sued Glenn and the Daily Local News for defamation. In 2000, a jury found that Glenn had defamed Norton and Wolfe, and ordered him to pay them each $17,500 in damages. The jury declined to hold the newspaper liable, after being advised by the trial judge of the doctrine of "neutral reporting privilege.

More after the jump...

Last October, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court rejected the concept of neutral reporting privilege, and said the media has no such constitutional protection. (It also reinstated the libel suit against Kennedy and the newspaper.)

Lawyers for more than two dozen of the nation's largest press organizations urged the U.S. Supreme Court to take up the Pennsylvania case and finally clarify the law. The issue came clearly into focus during the 2004 election with the campaign by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, who attacked Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry.

Monday, as the Los Angeles Times reported, the justices declined to hear the matter.

Absent a Supreme Court ruling, some states (and a few federal jurisdictions) will continue to provide protection for the media. Others, including Pennsylvania, will not, leaving journalists at risk for doing their jobs. An unnamed lawyer involved in the Parkesburg case told Savage that the Supreme Court's inaction "signals the demise of the neutral reporting privilege."

The Pennsylvania high court has ordered a new trial for the West Chester Daily Local News and Kennedy (who no longer works as a journalist), and its ruling leaves the newspaper wide open for civil penalties.

The CJR seems to think this is a bad trend. However, after watching the Swifties go after Kerry virtually unchecked in the media for months, I'm thinking it's about time.