Levesque v. Doocy

United States Court of Appeals
For the First Circuit

No. 08-1814

LEON LEVESQUE,

Plaintiff-Appellant,

v.

STEVE DOOCY, ET AL.,

Defendants-Appellees.

APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

FOR THE DISTRICT OF MAINE

[Hon. D. Brock Hornby, Jr., U.S. District Judge]

Before

Torruella, Stahl, and Howard, Circuit Judges.

Bernard J. Kubetz with whom Mark D. Beaumont and Eaton Peabody
were on brief for plaintiff-appellant.
Dori Ann Hanswirth with whom Theresa M. House, David A. Soley,
Hogan & Hartson LLP, and Bernstein Shur were on brief for
defendants-appellees.

March 19, 2009
 STAHL, Circuit Judge. Rare is there an opportunity to

interrupt today's twenty-four-hour news cycle, fueled by cable

television's incessant need for content and the explosion of

Internet websites that promptly apprise us of events across the

world. This appeal offers such a moment as we pause to review

plaintiff-appellant Leon Levesque's claim that defendants-appellees

Fox News Network, LLC ("Fox"), Steve Doocy, and Brian Kilmeade

defamed him during a show on the Fox News Channel ("FNC"). The

district court, after considering Levesque's claims, granted the

defendants' motion for summary judgment, and upon careful review,

we affirm.

I.

Because "[t]his action is an appeal from a grant of

summary judgment, . . . we recite the facts in the light most

favorable to [Levesque] as non-movant." Fiacco v. Sigma Alpha

Epsilon Fraternity, 528 F.3d 94, 97 (1st Cir. 2008) (citing

Franceschi v. U.S. Dep't of Veterans Affairs, 514 F.3d 81, 84 (1st

Cir. 2008)). The parties' dispute arises from a FNC morning

program's coverage of an incident in Lewiston, Maine, where

Levesque is the superintendent of the Lewiston Public Schools.

On April 11, 2007, a student at Lewiston Middle School

placed a bag containing leftover ham on the cafeteria table where

Somali Muslim students were sitting for lunch. The Somali students

reported the incident to Bill Brochu, a Lewiston police officer

-2-
stationed at the school. After an investigation of the incident,

the middle school's assistant principal suspended the offending

student for ten school days, a decision in which the principal

concurred. The assistant principal classified the incident as

"Hate Crime/Bias" in the school's computer system, and Brochu filed

a police report under the direction of his superior officer,

characterizing the incident as "Crime: Harassment/Hate Bias."

Levesque was informed of the suspension and endorsed the decision.

The following week, while the Lewiston schools were

closed for April vacation, Bonnie Washuk, a reporter for the

Lewiston Sun Journal, contacted Superintendent Levesque to discuss

an article she intended to write about the incident. Published on

April 19, 2007, the Washuk article included quotations from both

Levesque and Stephen Wessler, the executive director of the Center

for the Prevention of Hate Violence ("the Center") which was

working with the Lewiston Middle School to develop an appropriate

response to the incident. Washuk quoted Levesque as describing the

offending student's conduct as "a hate incident" and acknowledging,

"We've got some work to do to turn this around and bring the school

community back together . . . All our students should feel welcome

and safe in our schools." Wessler described the incident as

"extraordinarily hurtful and degrading" and warned that without a

response, "more degrading acts will follow, until at some point

we'll end up having violence." Somali students reflected that the

-3-
event reminded them of an incident earlier that year when the head

of a pig was rolled into a Lewiston mosque during a prayer session

that many Somalis attended.

On April 23, four days after the Sun Journal ran Washuk's

article, Nicholas Plagman uploaded a piece he had written about the

April 11 incident to Associated Content, a website platform that

permits registered users to publish content on topics of their

choosing. While the Plagman article purported to describe the

incident as a news story, it mischaracterized some facts, such as

reporting that the students left a ham sandwich, rather than ham

steak, on the cafeteria table. Similarly, where Washuk reported

that the Center was working with the school to create a response

plan, Plagman described it as "an anti-ham 'response plan.'"

Plagman also included fictitious quotations which generally built

upon those accurately used in Washuk's article. For example,

according to Plagman, Levesque stated, "We've got work to do to

turn this around and bring the school community back together

again. These children have got to learn that ham is not a toy."

Plagman also quoted Wessler as stating, "It's extraordinarily

hurtful and degrading. They probably felt like they were back in

Mogadishu starving and being shot at." Finally, Plagman falsely

listed the Associated Press ("AP") as a source. Because Plagman

indicated that his story should be housed under Associated

Content's "humor" and "news" categories, the article was

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retrievable through Google News, a computer-generated website that

aggregates headlines from news sources worldwide.

Around 3:30 a.m. on April 24, a line producer for FNC's

morning news talk show "Fox & Friends" discovered the Plagman

article. "Fox & Friends" runs each weekday from 6 a.m. until 9

a.m., its hosts discussing current events, interviewing guests, and

reporting the weather. Producers for the show search for

compelling stories for the hosts to discuss. The line producer

sent the Plagman article to the Fox News Research Department for

additional research. An information specialist was able to confirm

some of the facts presented in the article including the identities

and professional positions of Levesque and Wessler and the

existence of the Center, Lewiston Middle School, and the Lewiston

Police Department. He also discovered the Washuk article,

confirmed that the Lewiston Sun Journal was a legitimate newspaper,

and found two articles related to the incident at the Lewiston

mosque.

By 4:15 a.m., the Plagman article and research materials

were delivered to three of the show's four co-hosts, including

Doocy and Kilmeade. Doocy used Google News to conduct additional

research and also found the Plagman article, the Washuk article,

and a brief article on the Boston Globe's website which both

corroborated the general story of the incident and confirmed that

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the Center was working with the school on a response plan. The

defendants agreed to include the story in that morning's show.

During the three-hour cablecast, the defendants

repeatedly raised and discussed the April 11 incident, frequently

ridiculing Levesque, ascribing the handling of the incident largely

to him. They reported as true several of the fabricated quotations

that Plagman attributed to Levesque including the "ham is not a

toy" statement and also cited Levesque for the phony statement

comparing the incident to Mogadishu, a comment that had been

falsely attributed to Wessler in the Plagman article. Throughout

the cablecast, the hosts repeated these two falsified quotations

and used the incident as the basis for the "Question of the Day,"

inviting viewers to call or email the show to share their thoughts.

Doocy and Kilmeade at times made statements that arguably called

into question the veracity of the story. For example, Doocy on a

number of occasions stated, "I am not making this up," once

asserting that "I've looked it up on a couple of different websites

up there from local papers," and at various times, Kilmeade stated

"I hope we're not being duped," "I thought this was a joke," and "I

thought this was almost from The Onion.1 I didn't think that was

actually true." The show's producers attempted to contact Levesque

1
The Onion is a satirical newspaper that publishes parodies
of real news stories. It publishes a print version and has an
website.

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for comment, leaving a message at his office around 8 a.m., two

hours into the cablecast. Levesque did not return the calls.

Some time after the cablecast, Levesque contacted FNC to

complain about the show's inaccuracies.2 On May 16, 2007, "Fox &

Friends" issued a retraction and apology, agreeing that various

statements attributed to Levesque were fictitious and noting that

had the show realized the Plagman article was not legitimate, it

would not have repeated the fabricated statements.

The following month, Levesque filed a complaint asserting

libel, libel per se, false light invasion of privacy, and punitive

damages, claiming that five statements made by the defendants

during the cablecast were defamatory.3 First, he took issue with

the defendants' claim that he classified the incident as a hate

crime. He next objected to the defendants' references to an "anti-

ham response plan." Third, Levesque asserted that the repeated

mentions of "a ham sandwich" were defamatory. Fourth, he

challenged the statement "Leon Levesque - he says, 'These children

2
After the April 11 incident, Levesque began receiving
derogatory and threatening emails and phone calls from persons who
learned about the incident and the student's suspension. Levesque
submitted seventy-five emails to the district court; sixty-nine
were written after the "Fox & Friends" cablecast. Several were
written during the hours that the cablecast ran, and while the
defendants suggest that no email specifically mentioned Fox, at
least one does.
3
In the action below, Levesque challenged six statements by
the defendants. On appeal, he has elected to press his claims
with respect to only five. Therefore, we omit reference to the
statement which Levesque does not raise on appeal.

-7-
have got to learn that ham is not a toy.'" Finally, Levesque

disputed the defendants' assertion that "the superintendent . . .

says it's akin to making these kids feel like they're being shot at

back in Mogadishu and being starved to death."

The defendants moved for summary judgment, contending

that the statements were not defamatory and alternatively, that

Levesque, who stipulated that he was a public official, could not

show that the defendants acted with actual malice in making them.

The district court held that the statements were protected on

multiple grounds. Levesque v. Doocy, 557 F. Supp. 2d 157 (D. Me.

2008). It found the reference to a "hate crime" substantially true

and the "anti-ham response plan" quip protected rhetorical

hyperbole. The court determined that the references to a ham

sandwich, the "ham is not a toy" comment, and the Mogadishu

statement were materially false, reasonably susceptible of a

defamatory meaning, and highly offensive for purposes of the false

light claim. Nevertheless, the court granted the defendants'

motion, concluding that Levesque failed to produce evidence that

the defendants acted with constitutional malice when making the

statements.

II.

Summary judgment is proper where the record shows "no

genuine issue as to any material fact [such] that the movant is

entitled to judgment as a matter of law," Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(c);

-8-
see Hahn v. Sargent, 523 F.2d 461, 464 (1st Cir. 1975). We review

a grant of summary judgment de novo, Fiacco, 528 F.3d at 98, and

thus conduct an independent review of the entire record, Bose Corp.

v. Consumers Union of U.S., Inc., 466 U.S. 485, 510-11 (1984)

(discussing New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254 (1964)).

Although we view the record in the light most favorable

to the non-movant, Hahn, 523 F.2d at 464, we will reverse the grant

of summary judgment only if the non-movant, here Levesque, produces

"evidence from which a jury might return a verdict in his favor,"

Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 257 (1986). This

evidence must be substantial, Hahn, 523 F.2d at 464 (citations

omitted), and go beyond the mere allegations of the complaint, see

Lipsett v. Univ. of Puerto Rico, 864 F.2d 881, 894-95 (1st Cir.

1988) (citing Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 324 (1986);

Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(e)). "[A] mere challenge to the credibility of

a movant's witnesses without any supporting evidence does not raise

a trialworthy issue of fact." Favorito v. Pannell, 27 F.3d 716,

721 (1st Cir. 1994) (internal quotations and citation omitted);

see also Saenz v. Playboy Enter., Inc., 841 F.2d 1309, 1318 (7th

Cir. 1988) ("[T]he plaintiff must produce sufficient evidence

supporting the claimed factual dispute . . . to require a jury or

judge to resolve the parties' differing versions of the truth at

trial.") (internal quotations and citations omitted).

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 Under Maine common law, a plaintiff alleging defamation

must show a false and defamatory statement published without

privilege to a third party resulting in harm to the plaintiff.

Lester v. Powers, 596 A.2d 65, 69 (Me. 1991). Meanwhile,

discussions of public officials like Levesque deserve

constitutionally-protected "breathing space" in a democratic

society and thus are subject to a conditional privilege that is

overcome only by clear and convincing evidence that the defamatory

statement was made with actual malice, in other words "with

knowledge that [the statement] was false or with reckless disregard

of whether it was false or not." New York Times Co., 376 U.S. at

272, 279-80.4

This actual malice standard can have "profound

consequences" on the outcome of a defamation case, Mandel v. Boston

Phoenix, Inc., 456 F.3d 198, 201 (1st Cir. 2006), with "many

deserving plaintiffs, including some intentionally subjected to

injury, . . . unable to surmount the barrier of the New York

4
We are not unmindful of this circuit’s recent defamation
decision in Noonan v. Staples, Inc., No. 07-2159, 2009 WL 350895
(1st. Cir. Feb. 13, 2009), which found a genuine dispute on actual
malice and held that the district court erred in granting summary
judgment. However, Noonan applied Massachusetts common law on
actual malice, defined as "malicious intention." Id. at *5 (citing
Conner v. Standard Publ’g Co., 183 Mass. 464 (1903)). Here, we
deal with actual malice in the constitutional sense. Additionally,
the plaintiff in Noonan was neither a public official nor a public
figure, and the defendant did not timely argue that the issue was
a matter of public concern or that constitutional protections
should apply. See id. at *5, n.7. Thus, the reasoning of
Noonan is inapplicable to our analysis here.

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Times test," Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc., 418 U.S. 323, 342 (1974).

Moreover, the substantive evidentiary standard of proof for actual

malice applies at the motion for summary judgment stage. Anderson,

477 U.S. at 252. Thus, Levesque must provide evidence of actual

malice with "convincing clarity," New York Times Co., 376 U.S. at

285-86, to survive the defendants' motion for summary judgment.

Squarely within this legal framework, we first examine

the challenged statements to determine whether the district court

erred in holding some non-actionable and others potentially

defamatory. Because with one caveat we ultimately agree with the

district court's findings, we next consider whether the defendants

acted with actual malice when making the defamatory statements.5

A. Defamatory in Nature

The district court held that a jury could find defamatory

the defendants' attribution to Levesque of two false and absurd

quotations -- "ham is not a toy" and "it's akin to making these

kids feel like they're being shot at back in Mogadishu and being

starved to death" -- along with repeated references to a "ham

5
Levesque also appeals the district court's grant of summary
judgment on the false light invasion of privacy claim. Because
this claim "is simply a restatement of his defamation claim under
a different heading," Brown v. Hearst Corp., 54 F.3d 21, 27 (1st
Cir. 1995), our treatment of the defamation claim necessarily will
address Levesque's false light argument. See Howard v. Antilla,
294 F.3d 244, 248-49 (1st Cir. 2002) ("Where a false light invasion
of privacy action involves a public figure plaintiff and a media
defendant, the federal constitution imposes the same requirements
that would apply to an analogous claim for defamation under New
York Times Co. v. Sullivan and its progeny.") (citation omitted).

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sandwich" which included a recreation of the incident. The court

found that the defendants' statements that Levesque and the

Lewiston Middle School considered the incident to be a potential

"hate crime" and the use of the term "anti-ham response plan" were

not defamatory, concluding that the former was substantially true

and the latter was rhetorical hyperbole.

A communication is defamatory if it is provable as false,

Milkovich v. Lorain Journal Co., 497 U.S. 1, 19-20 (1990), and

"'tends so to harm the reputation of another as to lower him in the

estimation of the community or to deter third persons from

associating or dealing with him,'" Bakal v. Weare, 583 A.2d 1028,

1029 (Me. 1990) (quoting Restatement (Second) of Torts § 559

(1977)). Whether a statement is susceptible to a defamatory

meaning is a question of law. Amrak Prod., Inc. v. Morton, 410

F.3d 69, 72 (1st Cir. 2005). To appropriately "'construe[] [the

statement] in the light of what might reasonably have been

understood therefrom by the persons who [heard] it,'" Veilleux v.

Nat'l Broad. Co., 206 F.3d 92, 108 (1st Cir. 2000) (quoting Marston

v. Newavom, 629 A.2d 587, 592 (Me. 1993)), a court should consider

the context in which the challenged statement is made, viewing it

within the communication as a whole, Amrak Prods., 410 F.3d at 72-

73; Hearst Corp., 54 F.3d at 27; Phantom Touring. Inc. v.

Affiliated Pub., 953 F.2d 724, 729 (1st Cir. 1992); Bakal, 583 A.2d

at 1030.

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 We dispense first with those comments which the district

court found non-actionable. A substantially true statement does

not provide adequate basis for a defamation claim under Maine law.

Veilleux, 206 F.3d at 111; McCullough v. Visiting Nurse Serv., 691

A.2d 1201, 1204 (Me. 1997). Lewiston Middle School classified the

offending student's conduct as "Hate Crime/Bias" in its computer

system, both the Washuk and Plagman articles accurately quoted

Levesque describing the conduct as a "hate incident," and the

Washuk article opened with "more disciplinary action could follow

a possible hate crime at Lewiston Middle School, Superintendent

Leon Levesque said." We therefore agree with the district court

that "[t]he [defendants'] statement '[T]he superintendent and the

school board [are] looking into perhaps other charges against the

kid because it's a hate crime' is not actionable because it is

substantially true." Levesque, 557 F. Supp. 2d at 165, n.54

(citing Masson v. New Yorker Magazine, Inc., 501 U.S. 496, 516-17

(1991)).

We also agree that the defendants' references to an

"anti-ham response plan" were not defamatory. Statements that

contain "imaginative expression" or "rhetorical hyperbole" are

protected. Veilleux, 206 F.3d at 115 (citing Milkovich, 497 U.S.

at 20); Levinsky's, Inc. v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 127 F.3d 122,

127 (1st Cir. 1997)). Here, the defendants augmented Washuk's

accurate reporting -- "the [Center] is working with the school to

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create a response plan" -- with Plagman's creative flourish -- "the

[Center is] working with the school to create an anti-ham 'response

plan.'" This loosely rhyming phrase provided the defendants with

a succinct, perhaps distasteful, jingle through which to express

their derision, but such a device does not qualify as a provably

false statement, capable of a defamatory nature. Further, it

"cannot reasonably be interpreted as stating actual facts about

[Levesque]," Milkovich, 497 U.S. at 20 (internal quotations and

citation omitted).6

We turn next to those statements which the trial court

found defamatory in nature, the defendants' repeated references to

a ham sandwich and two fabricated statements attributed to

Levesque. While the district court found that the defendants'

mischaracterization of the ham placed on the Somali students' table

presented a jury question as to whether the remarks were defamatory

in nature, we think it is a close question whether the references

to a ham sandwich would have a different effect on the mind of a

listener than an accurate report about a leftover ham steak.

See Masson, 501 U.S. at 517. However, because our ultimate

6
Alternatively, this statement could be characterized as
substantially true. See Veilleux, 206 F.3d at 108 ("Where a
defendant alters a speaker's words but effects no material change
in meaning, the speaker suffers no injury to reputation that is
compensable under the law of defamation.") (citing Masson, 501 U.S.
at 516).

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resolution of this case makes such a determination unnecessary, we

do not disturb the district court's findings.

We concur with the district court that a jury reasonably

could conclude that the two fabricated statements attributed to

Levesque were defamatory. The Supreme Court has observed

[i]n general, quotation marks around a passage
indicate to the reader that the passage
reproduces the speaker's words verbatim. They
inform the reader that he or she is reading
the statement of the speaker, not a paraphrase
or other indirect interpretation by an author.
By providing this information, quotations add
authority to the statement and credibility to
the author's work. Quotations allow the
reader to form his or her own conclusions and
to assess the conclusions of the author,
instead of relying entirely upon the author's
characterization of her subject . . . [T]he
attribution may result in injury to reputation
because the manner of expression or even the
fact that the statement was made indicates a
negative personal trait or an attitude the
speaker does not hold.

Masson, 501 U.S. at 511. During the "Fox and Friends" cablecast,

the hosts persistently ridiculed the Lewiston Public Schools and

Levesque for the response to the April 11 incident and emphasized

several times two false and particularly ridiculous quotations

which they attributed to Levesque, "ham is not a toy" and a

comparison of the incident to Mogadishu. The attribution of these

comments to Levesque coupled with the defendants' "laughter tinged

with contempt," Powers v. Durgin-Snow Pub. Co., 144 A.2d 294, 296

(Me. 1958), encouraged viewers to form negative conclusions about

Levesque, thus tending to harm his reputation. Therefore, we agree

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with the district court that a genuine issue of material fact

exists as to whether the statements were defamatory.7

B. Actual Malice

A public official advancing a defamation claim must show

"that the [challenged] statement was made with a high degree of

awareness of . . . probable falsity." Bose Corp., 692 F.2d at 195

(internal quotations and citation omitted). In other words, the

defendant must act either with actual knowledge of the falsity or

with reckless disregard for the truth. New York Times Co., 376

U.S. at 279-80. Actual malice then is measured neither by

reasonably prudent conduct, Harte-Hanks Commc'n, Inc. v.

Connaughton, 491 U.S. 657, 688 (1989), nor an industry's

professional standards, Howard, 294 F.3d at 252; rather, it is

wholly subjective, St. Amant v. Thompson, 390 U.S. 727, 731 (1968).

Levesque does not suggest that the defendants actually knew the

Plagman article provided false information. Thus, he must show

"sufficient evidence to permit the conclusion that the defendant[s]

in fact entertained serious doubts as to the truth of" the Plagman

article and the statements it attributed to Levesque. Id.

Because direct evidence of actual malice is rare, it may

be proved through inference, Bose Corp., 692 F.2d at 196, and

7
Similarly, a jury reasonably could conclude that the
statements met the "highly offensive to a reasonable person"
element of the Maine false light cause of action. Veilleux, 206
F.3d at 134.

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circumstantial evidence, Connaughton, 491 U.S. at 668.

Recklessness amounting to actual malice may be found where a

publisher fabricates an account, makes inherently improbable

allegations, relies on a source where there is an obvious reason to

doubt its veracity, or deliberately ignores evidence that calls

into question his published statements. Connaughton, 491 U.S. at

684-85; St. Amant, 390 U.S. at 732. See Hunt v. Liberty Lobby, 720

F.2d 631, 643 (11th Cir. 1983) (finding actual malice where the

investigation was "grossly inadequate," the story was not "hot

news," and the neutrality of the source was dubious); Bose Corp.,

692 F.2d at 196 (noting that a court should consider the

thoroughness and methodology of a publisher's preparation and the

expertise of its authors); but see St. Amant, 390 U.S. at 733

("Failure to investigate does not in itself establish bad faith.");

McFarlane v. Sheridan Square Press, Inc., 91 F.3d 1501, 1511 (D.C.

Cir. 1996) ("[A]ctual malice may be inferred from an author's or

publisher's inability to corroborate a story only when, in

attempting to corroborate, he encounters persuasive evidence that

contradicts the allegation.").

Levesque contends that the defendants' failure to

corroborate the fabricated quotes from the Plagman article coupled

with incredulous statements during the cablecast (e.g., "I hope

we're not being duped," and "I thought this was a joke") establish

that the defendants acted with reckless disregard for the truth.

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He notes that Fox rushed to broadcast the two-week-old story even

though it was not breaking news. See Curtis Pub. Co. v. Butts, 388

U.S. 130, 157 (1967); Hunt, 720 F.2d at 643. It is true that a

more deliberate consideration of the Plagman article should have

caused reasonable skepticism about the source8 and that the

defendants were careless in relying on it, but this is an

indication of negligence, not actual malice, and Superintendent

Levesque faces the heavy burden of providing evidence that the

defendants recognized the carelessness with which they were

proceeding. See St. Amant, 390 U.S. at 731 ("[R]eckless conduct is

not measured by whether a reasonably prudent man would have

published, or would have investigated before publishing.").

In preparing for the cablecast, the defendants

authenticated the April 11 incident and various facts reported in

the Plagman article through reputable sources. Compare Tavoulareas

v. Piro, 817 F.2d 762, 790 (D.C. Cir. 1987) (finding no actual

malice and agreeing with the district court's assertion that "much

of [the unreliable source's] information was independently verified

by other sources whose credibility even the plaintiff does not now

8
In addition to those statements which we have found
potentially defamatory for summary judgment purposes, the Plagman
article falsely cited Levesque as stating "[a]ll our students
should feel welcome in our schools, knowing that they are safe from
attacks with ham, bacon, porkchops, or any other delicious meat
that comes from pigs." The defendants did not repeat this
fabricated statement, and on appeal, Levesque has not argued that
it provides further support for a finding of defamation.

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challenge") with Celle v. Filipino Rep. Enter. Inc., 209 F.3d 163,

190 (2d Cir. 2000) (finding actual malice where the defendants

relied on a single person who had a known bias against the

plaintiff and whose account had internal inconsistencies). In the

present case, the two actionable statements attributed to Levesque

were certainly absurd, but the Plagman article presented them

within larger, accurate comments that could be corroborated with

the Washuk article. See Ryan v. Brooks, 634 F.2d 726, 734 (4th

Cir. 1980) ("As long as the sources of the libelous information

appeared reliable, and the defendant had no doubts about its

accuracy, the courts have held the evidence of malice insufficient

to support a jury verdict, even if a more thorough investigation

might have prevented the admitted error.") (emphasis added)

(citations omitted). Further, it is true that the Lewiston

incident was not "hot news,"9 but Levesque has offered no evidence

that the defendants deliberately limited their investigatory

inquiry.10

9
Nonetheless, the "Fox & Friends" show was more timely than
the defamatory articles in Hunt, published in 1978 about the
plaintiff's possible involvement in the 1963 assassination of
President John F. Kennedy, Jr., 720 F.2d at 634-35, and Curtis Pub.
Co., written in March 1963 about a September 1962 event involving
the plaintiff, Butts v. Curtis Pub. Co., 225 F. Supp. 916, 917
(N.D. Ga. 1964).
10
We acknowledge that the case law which instructs our inquiry
does not include situations in which defendants relied on Internet
sources, a more recent but undoubtedly commonplace practice today.
While publishers should employ greater caution with those Internet
websites that do not go through the vetting process of traditional

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 During discovery, the defendants and other Fox employees

consistently stated that they believed the Plagman article was

reliable, both because it cited the AP11 and because they

corroborated many of the article's facts with other sources. Cf.

Connaughton, 491 U.S. at 684-85 (defendant deliberately ignored

available evidence to the point of avoiding the truth); Hunt, 720

F.2d at 645-46 (defendant had reason to question the neutrality of

sources and the entire premise of the story was inherently

improbable); Norris v. Bangor Pub. Co., 53 F. Supp. 2d 495, 506-07

(D. Me. 1999) (defendant ignored pertinent and contradictory

information supporting an inference that he possessed a political

motive for publishing the story).

news media, reliance in part on an Internet posting does not
necessarily change our legal analysis. See Zeran v. Diamond
Broad., Inc., 203 F.3d 714, 719 (10th Cir. 2000) (employing
traditional false light analysis and determining that defendant
radio show host's reliance on an anonymous and ultimately false
Internet posting to urge listeners to harangue plaintiff did not
qualify as actual malice).
11
None of the Fox employees were familiar with Associated
Content when they discovered the Plagman article, but they
consistently indicated that they found relevant its citation to the
AP. In fact, several, including Doocy, stated that they believed
the Plagman article actually was an AP piece. In his deposition,
Levesque's expert recognized the AP's reputation for reliability
and noted that it was one of two sources he regularly used. Still,
we agree with the expert that "[t]he discrepancy [between an
Associated Content piece and an AP piece] should [have] been
spotted." But where, as here, the plaintiff has failed to adduce
additional evidence of a defendant's subjective recklessness, this
oversight establishes only negligence, not actual malice.

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 To rebut these assertions, Levesque emphasizes Doocy and

Kilmeade's statements during the cablecast expressing incredulity

as evidence that the defendants harbored doubts about the veracity

of the quotes. In certain contexts, a statement like "I hope we're

not being duped" likely would raise a genuine issue of material

fact on the question of actual malice. See Hunt, 720 F.2d at 638

(finding relevant for actual malice purposes the fact that an

editor wrote "Confirm this!" for a certain section of the novel's

draft). But in the context of a consistently irreverent (and to

many, insensitive) morning television show, see Seelig v. Infinity

Broad. Corp., 97 Cal. App. 4th 798, 811 (2002) (noting that "the

irreverence of [the] morning radio program, which may strike some

as humorous and others as gratuitously disparaging, is not atypical

of this genre"), such statements frequently are used as devices to

magnify the presentation and grab viewers' attention. See,

e.g., Dep. of Brian Kilmeade, 67:17-23, 68:3-7 (Jan. 16, 2008) ("I

am trying to let people know that this is a story you should pay

attention to. . . . I mean, Wake up. I know you're brushing your

teeth, putting on your pants, getting ready for school. . . . I

just want to make sure people watch on a regular basis. So you

tease stories; you get people's attention."). We thus agree with

the district court that these statements do nothing to undermine

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the defendants' sworn testimony regarding their belief in the

veracity of the Plagman article.12

Beyond noting the ridiculous quality of the fabricated

quotations and Doocy and Kilmeade's statements of incredulity

during the cablecast, Levesque offered no additional evidence, let

alone any of "convincing clarity," New York Times Co., 376 U.S. at

285-86, to show that the defendants disbelieved or entertained

serious doubts about the challenged statements in the Plagman

article, an evidentiary burden required at the summary judgment

stage, Anderson, 477 U.S. at 252. The defendants were negligent in

their failure to question adequately the reliability of the Plagman

article and conduct further research before attributing the

outrageous quotations to Levesque, and like the district court, we

hope that this conduct was "an extreme departure from professional

standards." Connaughton, 491 U.S. at 665. That the negligence was

accompanied by derisive contempt and ridicule directed at Levesque

makes all the more distasteful the defendants' carelessness. But

while the defendants reported as true false statements, they did so

after verifying the underlying facts of the April 11 incident.

Their vetting process was perhaps too cursory and perfunctory, but

no facts indicate that the defendants purposefully avoided the

12
We also observe that Doocy and Kilmeade's statements of
incredulity often accompanied their largely accurate summary of the
April 11 incident and were not directed toward the challenged
statements attributed to Levesque.

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truth, and we think the substantial truth of the story which they

reported obviates a finding of actual malice. See St. Amant, 390

U.S. at 731 ("It may be said that [the actual malice] test puts a

premium on ignorance . . . But to insure the ascertainment and

publication of the truth about public affairs, it is essential that

the First Amendment protect some erroneous publications as well as

true ones.").

The actual malice standard, adopted to ensure a vibrant

media check on official action, requires more of Levesque to

survive summary judgment. Certainly, as we noted above, "it exacts

a . . . high price from the victims of defamatory falsehood.

Plainly many deserving plaintiffs, including some intentionally

subjected to injury, will be unable to surmount the barrier of the

New York Times test." Gertz, 418 U.S. at 342. This action reminds

us that in a court of law, sympathy does not always to the victor

go. We find that Levesque cannot survive the defendants' motion

for summary judgment.13

III.

For the foregoing reasons, we affirm the district court's

grant of summary judgment.

13
Because Levesque cannot show actual malice for his
defamation claim, the district court also was correct in granting
summary judgment on the false light claim. Howard, 294 F.3d at
248-49; Cole v. Chandler, 752 A.2d 1189, 1193 (Me. 2000).

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