More bad news for fascist Varian SLAPPers:
"Insulting it was, but slander, no
Judge says DJ's 'skank' line tasteless, but tosses lawsuit
Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, April 18, 2002
©2002 San Francisco Chronicle
URL: sfgate.com
Whatever the precise meaning of "skank" -- and it's clearly not flattering -- it isn't slanderous to be called one on the radio.
At least that was the conclusion of a state appellate court in dismissing a suit by a San Francisco woman who was subjected to a round of name-calling after refusing to be interviewed on the air about her experience as a contestant on TV's "Who Wants to Marry a Multimillionaire?"
The court said her suit was so flimsy, in fact, that it ordered her to pay the legal fees of the station and its employees under a state law penalizing suits that seek to squelch free speech.
The woman, Jennifer Seelig, had told a producer at San Francisco radio station KLLC-FM (better known as Alice 97.3) that she didn't want to subject herself to possible ridicule -- and, in addition, that she might be legally barred from talking about the about-to-air show.
On the day of the telecast in February 2000, Vincent Crackhorn, co-host of KLLC's morning "Sarah and Vinnie" show, remarked on the air that "we have . . .
a local loser" on the TV program.
Without mentioning Seelig's name, Crackhorn called her a "chicken butt" for turning down an interview. The producer who had called Seelig, Uzette Salazar, added that she had talked to the woman's ex-husband who "says what a big skank she is." Seelig's suit said her ex-husband denied the comment, and he got an apology from Salazar.
But the state Court of Appeal in San Francisco ordered Seelig's slander suit dismissed Tuesday.
The TV show was a legitimate subject of debate, the court said, and Seelig invited scrutiny by participating. It also said the insults she endured were mere expressions of opinion or subjective judgment -- including skank, which the court described as "a derogatory slang term of recent vintage that has no generally recognized meaning."
"Although sophomoric and in bad taste, the comments are just the type of name-calling of the 'sticks and stones will break my bones' variety" that have been found non-defamatory in earlier cases, wrote Justice Mark Simons.
Seelig's attorney, Christopher Dolan, said the court wasn't consulting the proper sources.
"I think anybody in that (radio) market, the 14s to mid-20s, knows what skank means: a dirty woman, unchaste, often used in conjunction with whore," Dolan said, quoting from a slang dictionary that he cited to the court. "Unfortunately, the court was out of touch with the public that heard the statement."
Other slang dictionaries offer a variety of definitions, including cheap- looking, sluttish and "an unattractive, easily available girl." The word has made it into at least one conventional dictionary, the 2000 edition of the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, which defines skank as "one who is disgustingly foul or filthy and often considered sexually promiscuous, used especially of a woman or a girl."
Dolan said Seelig -- "a lovely single mother who did nothing to invite this criticism " -- had left her previous radio sales job in San Francisco and moved to Southern California.
E-mail Bob Egelko at begelko@sfchronicle.com.
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