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From Carol Burnett vs. The National Enquirer to William Westmoreland vs. CBS, lawsuits against the media have captured many a headline in recent years. This spirited account offers a close look at these attacks on the press and what they reveal about American culture,the legal system and libel law, and the way the press operates.

Why, Rodney Smolla asks, have so many people--people as various as Ralph Nader, Clint Eastwood, Lillian Hellman, and Jerry Falwell--taken to suing the press? Are they mainly interested in money, vengeance, or the restoration of honor? Is the press under fire because it has grown too arrogant and oracular--attempting to set national agendas and monopolize the dispensation of truth? How important is the protection of reputation and privacy in American society, and how should those interests be reconciled with the competing social interests in robust freedom of speech? Are Americans becoming too thin--skinned, too devoted to self-image? Or are the problems of the media in court primarily of the media's own making?

To shed light on these and other crucial issues, Smolla examines both the individual lawsuits and broader themes involving the economics of media litigation, the cultural forces that affect libel judgements, and the special problems posed by particular types of expression, such as fictionial works. The media outlets discussed are as varied as the personalities initiating the suits--from The New York Times and The Washington Post to Penthouse and Hustler. Continually lively and provocative, this book reveals much about the media's shortcomings and virtues, not to mention the American character itself.

About the Author

Rodney A. Smolla is Professor of Law at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville.

Features:

What the recent spate of lawsuits against the media reveal about our society

BL A lively glimpse into important aspects of the American character

BL Filled with personalities ranging from Carol Burnett to Ralph Nader

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CHOICE Review

The US has long been regarded as a litigious society. Why this continues to be the case is explained in this legal and cultural analysis of the recent explosion in libel suits and related invasion of privacy torts that have been initiated by well-known personalities against the media. The author (professor of law, Arkansas), examines a number of benchmark cases (The New York Times v. Sullivan, Hellman v. McCarthy, Sharon v. Time Inc., Burnett v. National Enquirer, Westmoreland v. CBS, and others) to demonstrate ``the influences of cultural trends on the fabric and working of the American legal system'' (p. 6-7). In the process, Smolla addresses important questions: Why do plaintiffs sue? Do their suits represent a threat or an expansion of civil liberties? What are the social consequences of this litigation? What reforms are possible? Here is an absorbing study of historic sociolegal changes, meticulously researched and imaginatively interpreted. For all levels of students.-E.C. Dreyer, University of Tulsa