I WAS JUST BEING “PAINTERLY” WHEN I CALLED YOU AN EXTORTIONIST: Hyperbole is all the rage these days, but when reporters use words like “extort” they and their lawyers and editors really need to think it through. That’s especially hard when you advertise yourself as a “just the facts” news outfit and then turn around and plead “hyperbole” as a defense. The Second Circuit (the most press-friendly in the nation) reverses in part, dismissal of a libel claim:

“[A] reasonable reader could interpret the word “extort” here as more than just “rhetorical hyperbole” describing [the] belief that the lawsuit was frivolous.   [They]  did not simply state that [the reported upon] lawsuit was an attempt to extort money from the company. Instead, [it was] stated that Plaintiff  “repeatedly” tried to extort money from them.  This statement can be read as something other than a characterization of Plaintiff’s underlying lawsuit against and is reasonably susceptible to a defamatory meaning—that Plaintiff actually committed the criminal act of extortion—a statement that is capable of being proven false.”

DISCLOSURE: I served as Global Media Counsel to Bloomberg News for almost 14 years.