Truth should be trump card

Truth should be trump card

Savannah (Ga.) Morning News: The truth must always be an absolute defense against libel. To argue otherwise is an assault on our freedoms.

Unfortunately, there’s a federal case in New England that’s ominous and bears watching.

In 2005, a major office supply company fired a sales director who was accused of padding his expense account.

But instead of quietly giving him the boot, a company executive sent an e-mail to about 1,500 employees that announced that the worker had been canned and warned them that rules must be followed.

Class of his own

The ex-employee wasn’t amused and sued for libel. He argued that he was being singled out for public humiliation and that his former boss had acted maliciously, as no other company employee had been trotted out as an example.

A federal district court judge tossed out his complaint, rightly citing precedent that truth is a defense against libel. The defendant appealed — and amazingly, a federal appeals court found that he could pursue his claim under state law in Massachusetts, where the case originated. That law says that malicious intent trumps the truth.

If the truth can’t be used as a shield, then all forms of truthful speech could be subject to a lawsuit.

Anyone whose feelings were bruised could retain a lawyer and haul the writer of a letter, memo or e-mail into court, the truth be damned.