Drudge still being sued for libel in other case: GUILTY
AOL cleared but not Drudge in libel case
Last modified: April 23, 1998, 10:30 AM PDT
By Erich Luening
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
A federal judge has dismissed a $30 million defamation suit filed against America Online by a White House adviser, ruling that Internet service providers are immune from civil suits stemming from the editorial content they carry.
Charges still stand against Matt Drudge, the author of the report upon which the case is based. Drudge's dispatch runs on his own Web site and can be reached through AOL, as well as other services.
According to AOL, U.S. District Judge Paul L. Friedman ruled that Congress exempted AOL from the defamation suit when it passed the Communications Decency Act of 1996. That law treats AOL and other providers as conduits of information, he said, not publishers of material.
The suit was filed by White House aide Sidney Blumenthal. Drudge had reported that Blumenthal had a "spousal abuse past." Blumenthal and his wife, Jacqueline, filed the suit against Drudge, who retracted the report the next day and apologized.
The suit, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, alleged that Drudge knew that the story was false or acted with "reckless disregard for the truth" by not thoroughly checking facts in his online Drudge Report. |
