ESPN Seeks to End Libel Lawsuit

ESPN is now requesting the court render judgment in its favor due to Laurie’s changing story. According to the Hollywood Reporter , ESPN argues in its memorandum in support of a dismissal of the lawsuit that “Mrs. Fine has gone from claiming the Tape was doctored, to conceding it was authentic, to swearing that she was not discussing sex, to conceding that she was, but supposedly with a 17-year-old.” ESPN makes the claim that a judgment in favor of Laurie Fine would “make a mockery of the First Amendment.”

Ms. Fine’s response to ESPN’s claims alleged that ESPN had no basis for alleging that she had child abuse concerns. Laurie attacks the reporting methods used by ESPN and argues that the reporters should have listened to the FBI about the importance of reviewing the age of consent in New York.

In support of her argument, Ms. Fine produced ESPN’s editorial guidelines suggesting that prior to 2011, it was network policy to not report allegations of criminal activity unless the subject of the news report had been officially charged with a crime. Further, ESPN considered such reporting without criminal charges to generally be “defamatory” under these old guidelines.

ESPN has since revised its guidelines and removed the language cited by Ms. Fine. In 2012, ESPN allowed reports on criminal activities, even if formal charges had not been filed, as long as the ESPN report had “independent reporting from one or more credible sources that justifies making the story public.”

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