A newspaper ran an article that says a congressman has accepted a number of payments from an oil company.The article claims that the payments were illegal and that the congressman has committed a crime by receiving the payments.It turns out that the reporter made a mistake in reading a financial report,and the payments were,in fact,legal.The congressman sues the newspaper for libel.The newspaper acknowledges that it made a mistake,apologizes,and then defends itself using the legal principles established by which of the following cases?

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

In New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, the Supreme Court established the principle that public officials can only win a libel suit against a media organization if they can prove actual malice or reckless disregard for the truth by the media organization. This means that the media organization must have known or suspected that the information they published was false or acted with reckless disregard for whether it was true or false. Since the newspaper in this scenario made a mistake but did not act with actual malice or reckless disregard for the truth, they could use the legal principles established by New York Times Co. v. Sullivan to defend themselves.

A Newspaper Ran an Article That Says a Congressman Has