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Imagine college news outlet staff members in Pennsylvania use an online messagin
Imagine college news outlet staff members in Pennsylvania use an online messaging service to communicate story ideas and updates. One staffer sends a message, “I want to write a story about a terrible landlord near campus, the kind of story that will show no one should live in this person’s properties.” Another staffer responds, “That could be an award-winning story.” A third staffer says, “Go for it! Go after the Thishousingstinks.com guy.”
Thishousingstinks.com is a blog that invites people to anonymously post about their experiences renting housing within a mile of the college’s campus. In the past week, a string of anonymous posts have focused on one landlord who rents about three dozen apartments to college students each year.
One comment on Thishousingstinks.com calls the landlord “A fraudulent slumlord.” Another calls the landlord “unscrupulous.” A third says, “My apartment was infested with rats, and the landlord refused to do anything about it.” A fourth post says, “I had to move in the middle of the semester. My bedroom wall was crumbling.”
The landlord, who is a resident of Pennsylvania, responded on the website that the posts were false. The landlord also posted on X, Instagram, and other social media channels, “Thishousingstinks.com is posting lies. This misinformation site needs to be taken down.” He created a website and submitted columns to multiple news outlets to counter what he calls the lies posted on Thishousingstinks.com. And, he offered to help the college create guidelines that could help students determine which housing near campus is likely to be safe and sanitary.
One of the city’s major news outlets recently ran a story about the online feud between the landlord and Thishousingstinks.com. The landlord was quoted as saying, “This misinformation campaign is cruel. These types of lies can ruin people’s lives. Sites like these need to be taken down.” The landlord also was quoted as saying, “I’m a responsible business person actively working to make sure housing for students is safe and sanitary. All landlords need to do this.”
After the major news outlet published that story, a staff member for the college news outlet sent the following online message to the college news staff: “He’s big time now. We have to get him with this story.”
A story writer for the college news outlet wrote a story that paraphrased students’ stories about rat infestations in their apartments, heating systems not working, and landlord refusals to address unsanitary or unsafe conditions.
The story writer for the college news outlet interviewed the landlord, who said, “Those stories are not true. Check with my current tenants. Check with the City Department of Licenses and Inspections and the police. I’ve never had a complaint filed about me or my properties. You need to correct this misinformation.”
The story writer for the college news outlet wrote a compelling story that paraphrased tales of students’ struggles with leaking ceilings, bugs, and rodents in apartments the students said they rented from “the Thishousingstinks.com guy.” The article quoted one student’s assertion that the landlord “had been charged with fraud.” The article also paraphrased another student’s statement that multiple complaints had been filed with the city against the landlord.
After reading a draft of the story, an editor for the college news outlet sent the staff an online message. That message said, “It’s hard to believe this prominent of a property owner could get away with this stuff. Does anyone else have serious doubts about this?” Another staff member responded, “We should make sure they really are talking about this guy. Did anyone check the students’ lease agreements?”
The story writer for the college news outlet, however, didn’t ask to see any of the students’ lease agreements and didn’t check property records for the people who were interviewed. The story writer trusted two of the student sources. The writer knew the third source, who said the landlord had been charged with fraud, lied sometimes, but the writer didn’t see why anyone would lie about a landlord being charged with fraud.
The story writer was careful not to take any of the trusted sources’ comments out of context, but the writer did stretch some of the less trustworthy source’s points. The writer didn’t think anyone would believe that source’s complaints about comments being misconstrued.
The story writer for the college news outlet also didn’t take the landlord’s suggestion to check if there were any police records or department of licenses and inspections complaints about the landlord.
Imagine the college news outlet published the story, and the landlord filed a libel suit against the author. The college news outlet now knows that statements published in the story were false and defamatory and “of and concerning” the landlord. The college news outlet, however, has other questions, and they need your advice.
On your own, independently write a 750-800 word essay that incorporates material from our relevant assigned course content to answer the following questions:
What was the plaintiff status of the landlord at the time of the college news outlet’s publication? Why is that plaintiff status of the landlord?
What level of fault will the landlord have to prove the college news outlet acted with? What is the burden of proof for that level of fault?
Why will or won’t the landlord be able to prove the college news outlet acted with that level of fault according to the proper burden of proof?
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