Judge Allows Lawsuit Against Glenn Beck to Proceed
In the wake of the Boston Marathon bombing, Glenn Beck talked about Saudi national Abdul Rahman Ali Alharbi, who was detained and questioned about the attack, and shared a theory, based on supposed sources he spoke to, that Alharbi was directly involved in the bombing.
Days later, Beck kept at it, continuing to say that Alharbi had engaged in “terrorist activities” and such. Well, all this turned out to be… well, not exactly true, to be charitable. And earlier this year, Alharbi filed suit against Beck, TheBlaze, Mercury Radio Arts, and Premiere Radio Networks for defamation.
They obviously pushed to dismiss the case, but a U.S. district court judge today ruled that the lawsuit could proceed. Judge Patti Saris writes that Beck “made numerous false statements about Alharbi on his radio show, even after he was cleared.” She shoots down the idea he attempted to “thrust himself into a controversy” and so does not fall into various categories of what constitutes a public figure.
She concludes:
As a private figure, Alharbi is not required to allege actual malice in order to make out a claim for defamation. Instead, the level of fault required on the defendants’ part is
merely negligence… The facts alleged in Alharbi’s complaint easily permit an inference that the defendants were negligent as to the truthfulness of their reports after the authorities cleared his name. The Court need not determine whether the allegations create a plausible claim of actual malice.
You can read the full opinion here [PDF], via Politico.
[image via s_bukley/Shutterstock]
— —
