Greene, who lost to Miami U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek by 26 percentage points, said the newspapers published stories about his real estate dealings in California and his 145-foot yacht Summerwind that were ``knowingly based on false information.''
``Defendants . . . published the articles with the goal of destroying the personal, business and political reputation of Greene,'' the suit claims.
Greene, represented by prominent Atlanta lawyer L. Lin Wood, is seeking a total of $500 million in damages from the two papers.
``We don't have any comment on the lawsuit, since the case was just filed,'' said Herald Executive Editor Anders Gyllenhaal. ``But we can say that the coverage of this race and the candidates was fair, deep and thorough.''
Said Times Editor Neil Brown: ``It is our firm opinion that the allegations in this lawsuit are preposterous. We believe Jeff Greene is a sore loser and he's blaming the newspapers because he can't accept the verdict of the voters.''
Greene's defamation suit, filed in Miami-Dade circuit court, is unusual for a political figure. The news media enjoy strong protections of freedom of the press under the First Amendment. To win damages, Greene's lawyer would have to prove the two stories that allegedly defamed him were published by the papers with ``actual malice.''
The 55-page suit claims that The Herald and The Times ``had actual knowledge of facts prior to publication that disproved their false accusations but nonetheless proceeded to publication in an intentional effort to harm Greene and his campaign.''
The two stories cited by Greene's suit were written and edited by members of the Times staff, but also published in The Herald.
In the suit, Greene also condemned a Times editorial that urged federal investigators to look into Greene's role in a California real estate transaction.
The first story delved into Greene's campaign assertions that he made hundreds of millions of dollars by betting that the housing boom would go bust and that he did not personally contribute to the real estate meltdown. The story detailed Greene's 2006 sale of converted military housing in the California desert to a man now facing federal conspiracy, fraud and money-laundering charges.
The 300-unit deal led to buyer defaults, mortgage foreclosures and lender losses.
According to the suit, the second story suggested that the boxer Mike Tyson, who was best man at Greene's wedding in 2007, used drugs while on the real estate mogul's yacht two years earlier. Both papers ran corrections in which Tyson clarified that his use of drugs did not occur aboard Summerwind.
"I don’t feel reporters with agendas should be deciding who gets elected to office," Greene, 55, told The Miami Herald in a phone interview Thursday. "You can't just ignore the truth and write stories because you don’t want someone elected to office.
"It’s very unfortunate," he added. "I was ahead 15 percent and when the stories ran, I was down 10 percent. It just snowballed after that."
The Times disagreed.
``Democracy won't work if we let lawsuits full of baseless charges from a political candidate inhibit us from providing voters with the independent information that they need and rely on,'' Brown, the Times editor, said.
‘Captain America’ Star Chris Evans Researched ‘Origin Stories’ For Lead RoleExtent of wealth emerging
Комментариев нет:
Отправить комментарий