Libel
This would be an example of libel. This video is an edited video showing CNN reporter Jim Acosta allegedly grabbing the arm of a White House intern while answering a question. However, the original video is Acosta trying to grab the microphone from the intern after she grabbed it away from him. This damages Acosta’s reputation, because this video characterizes him as grabbing the intern, when he clearly had no contact with her. The plaintiff is identified and ridiculed through the tweets that he allegedly grabbed the intern. The injury would be to Acosta’s reputation, which was tarnished due to this incident, but somewhat restored when the White House gave him his press pass.
This would also be an example of libel. This article from the BBC talks about a tweet with Elon Musk and an UK diver who helped rescue Thai children trapped in the cave a few years ago. When Musk sent over equipment and the divers declined to use it, Musk called the UK diver “pedo guy”. The article alleges that the diver, Vernon Unsworth’s life has been changed since the accusation and Musk merely meant it as an insult, saying that phrase was commonly used in South Africa. Musk’s tweet, now deleted, was damaging to his reputation and called Mr. Unsworth out for being a “pedo guy”, as previously mentioned and accused Unsworth of being a “child rapist” in an email to BuzzFeed. Unsworth is now seeing almost $200M in damages from Musk in court.
The teen who was at the center of this lawsuit, Nicholas Sandmann, sued CNN over false coverage of his interactions with Nathan Phillips at the pro-life rally in Washington, D.C. CNN alleged that the conduct of himself and his peers lead to unfair coverage and inappropriate assumptions about Sandmann. This would be an example of libel, because CNN presumed that Sandmann and his classmates were involved in racially charged interactions with Phillips. It damaged his reputation and identified him in the allegation as being racist towards Phillips. CNN and Sandmann recently settled out of court, the first of the many lawsuits Sandmann’s attorney has filed against other media corporations.
Slander
This would be an example of slander. In the article, there are two candidates running for a spot on the Wisconsin high court. The conservative judge, Dan Kelly, accused his liberal leaning challenger, Jill Karofsky of slander. At a law forum in Milwaukee, WI, Karofsky accused Kelly of favoring conservative groups. This would be considered slander, because Karofsky is essentially accusing Kelly of a crime, which would be to favor a conservative group in a court of law just because they are in conservative. However, a judge is supposed to be impartial and rule without prejudice of one party or another.
This would be an example of slander. In this article, President Trump’s son, Eric, accused Hunter Biden of “embezzling money”, which would be a crime. However, Trump has no proof of this, thus- slander. It is damaging to Biden’s reputation and falsely accuses him of something that Biden has no connection to doing. This is different from libel, because it wasn’t written down about him, rather- it was spoken about him.
In a New York Times editorial published in 2017, Sarah Palin is accused of having some involvement in the 2011 Tucson shooting. This would be an example of slander, because they accused Palin of a crime (being involved with the shooting). Palin had no involvement with the shooting and promptly filed for a defamation case against the Times. For a while, this case was dormant until recently, when a judge ruled to open the case back up.
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