Athlete Libel Suit Goes Wrong; Athlete Goes Wrong as Well?
John Daly had an interesting week after learning that he lost his libel lawsuit against a Jacksonville newspaper. Then things really got interesting.
On Tuesday, his lawsuit against the Jacksonville Times-Union newspaper came to an end when the judge granted summary judgment for the newspaper. The court found that there was no “actual malice” and that the offending column contained inactionable opinion statements by columnist Mike Freeman.
Daly had attacked three phrases in the column, which described his troubled personal life in unflattering terms. The objectionable portions included mention of domestic-violence accusations, comparison to basketball player Shawn Kemp because of his children from different women and discussion of Daly’s “Thug Life qualifications” and “rap sheet.” Freeman compared him to former Jaguar R. Jay Soward, who had a well-known drug problem. Carithers found the domestic-violence portion of the column was true. The comparisons to Kemp and Soward and the Thug Life statement weren’t actionable because they were the columnist’s opinion, the judge said.
Next, Daly allegedly Tweeted about the story, asking his fans to call and criticize the newspaper reporter.
Daly late Tuesday night posted the cell phone number of the Times-Union’s Garry Smits on two of his three Twitter posts, writing in one of them, “here’s the JERK who writes NON-NEWS article ... CALL & FLOOD his line & let’s tell him how we feel.” Smits said he received nearly 100 calls.
That is an interesting reaction to losing a lawsuit. Now the Golf Writers Association of American has asked the PGA Tour to suspend Daly for his conduct. Somehow, I doubt Daly would be too upset given his immense popularity despite his golf game, which has been middling at best since his last victory in 2004.
