“American libel law requires actual malice, or reckless disregard of facts, by the media before a public figure can collect. But the students were not public figures as they gathered at the Lincoln Memorial to meet their bus, and the ready availability of exonerating videotape suggests that the first accusatory stories were rushed into print with reckless disregard of available facts. I sure wouldn’t want to defend them before a Kentucky jury.”
Could this be the source of all the journalist layoffs this week? Maybe so.
It could be the reason, but the price paid by the boys was very high.