Let's give a round of applause for Chief Joyce.  Forget all of Ragman's whining about how hard it's been on him.  He brought it on himself with his lousy reporting. 

The SLAPP ruling was disappointing.  The Chief deserved his day in court.  That's all he was asking for.  Ragman claimed he was asking for that too.  "Give me my day in court and I'll prove my stories true!" was the message he kept sending.   But let the record show in the end, he took the coward's way out.

Truth be told, defamation cases are notoriously difficult to win.  A few years ago, a Boston judge won a case against the Boston Herald, and the was the first time someone had won a defamation case in Massachusetts in many years.  And he won only because there was just such obvious malfeasance on the reporter's part.  The Herald reporter manufactured quotes, wrote a story with fake quotes making it look like the judge had said horrible things during a public hearing.  He hadn't and the hearing was recorded showing the quotes were never said, so it was a slam dunk.

But that's the rare case.  Defamation cases are difficult to win, and especially hard if you are a public figure.  For public figures, the standard isn't whether the statement was true, it is "whether it was made with knowledge that it was untrue, or with a reckless disregard for whether it was false or true."

That's a harder standard to reach.  Now, yes, "Reckless Disregard for the Truth" sometimes seems like it would be a good nickname for the Rag, but really, all the Ragman has to do is say, "Oh your honor, Selectman Brenda told me this was true, so I didn't know!"

Look at some of the things Ragman has been saying already.  Do you hear him shouting? "My stories are true!"  No, it's "my stories have a factual basis!"  (And given that witness list the Ragman had, isn't it a little questionable whether he really had good reason to believe his stuff was true?)

Hooray, his stories have a factual basis.  I feel much better.  Truth means it is true.  Factual basis means you had a reason to believe it's true, but not that it's necessarily true.

The system is completely screwed up.

Anyway, let's give three cheers to Joyce.  Surely this has been a hard and costly road for him, but he fought for his right to not have his character attacked by a de facto state newspaper.  Suing the Ragman likely put an even bigger target on his back from the Rag and the BOS, but good for him for standing up for what was right.

I hope he will appeal this.  I really do.  SLAPP law was designed for real whistleblowers who are being abused, not for lying dirtbags...and we can only hope that a higher court judge will see that.  But if the Chief decides that's not the best course of action for him (it'll bring more legal fees) then he's still a hero in my book.

Last edited by Hamatron5000 (2009-04-07 11:54:57)