Pedes, This is a sincere request for some crowd sourcing from those with small town papers. A guy "James L Hartley" almost every week is in our small hometown paper (in missouri) with hardcore leftist propaganda in the opinion section, he mostly attacks local conservative politicians. The thing is no one knows who he is. Do any of you have a person like this in your local small town papers?
A local alderman published a column in our hometown paper "Confused: storming of the US Capitol worse than 9/11" he calls it a coup worse than 9/11 and talks about people intentionally murdering Sicknick, ANTIFA being good, etc. I wrote back in an opinion piece pointing out things like the lack of guns used, minimal damage, provocateur's, ANTIFA's record, etc and that people there and me legitimately believe the election was unfair and were seeking transparency. I stated that I hoped deaths were investigated fairly.
The next week, James L Hartley, publishes a piece calling me out by my first and last name as being complicit with rioting, murder and treason, dishonest, etc, etc. I've lived in the town for 4 yrs and have two businesses struggling to get going, my customer base is the town, so he can definitely damage me. This is defamation. I couldn't find who he was so I went to the local paper today and said I wanted to meet with Hartley, would they mediate a meeting (they won't release his contact info). They haven't responded so far.
So what I'm wondering is if this is really a fellow citizen or if it is a funded political operation where leftists spam small rural opinion sections pretending to be local citizens. Or maybe even pay papers for column space that pretends to be opinion without labeling it as a funded article.
Any observations from others with their small town papers would be appreciated. Thank you.
Well, if his allegations are untrue, you can file a defamation lawsuit and cite him and the paper in the lawsuit. This will grant you the ability to petition the courts subpoena power to gather his contact info from the paper.
Also this looks to be a deformation per se lawsuit, where damages are assumed making it likely to win if you can prove he said them.
The four general categories are for deformation per se:
Indications that a person was involved in criminal activity
I left out the rest
I was thinking about this in small claims court, but right from the start you need to list the name and address of the defendant....which I haven't been able to figure out. But yes I suppose I could get a lawyer, include the paper, and subpoena the information.
You might be able to find a lawyer that will work on contingency if you can't upfront the money. Like I said below deformation per se lawsuits damages are assumed making it easier for a lawyer and thus making it more likely to work on contingency.
I appreciate the advice.
Get a lawyer. This is not a small claims matter, and damages for defamation are big.
If it were me, I would file against the newspaper, the editor-in-chief and John Doe (singular or plural) as the author of the article. My daddy says, you only have one bite of the apple, so I’d cast a wide net right out of the gate. Find an attorney from a larger city...doesn’t have to be STL or KC...there’s some awesome ones in Jeff City.
Good luck pede. I hope you kick their teeth in
Yes!
Thank you TrumpGirl, I put in for a consult with a defamation lawyer in STL.
Good for you, MobGrazer. I’m a Columbia MO native and small-town folks can be small-minded and nasty. Don’t dox yourself but post on this thread with updates as you can. We are ALL pulling for you in your pursuit of what right and truthful. Big hug, pede.
Will do. thank you for the support. I've contacted a 2nd STL attorney firm, hopefully both respond and I can pick one.
Tomorrow morning my wife and I are going to go back into the newspaper office. I hope to read, to the editor and his staff, the opinion article they published about me and ask about their policy for publishing opinion pieces accusing private citizens of crimes without evidence.
I'd rather just sue the author and not the hometown paper...they are a local institution hanging on by a thread. I hope common decency will prevail and they will voluntarily publish a retraction and apology and then review/revise their policy for handling libelous opinion pieces.
Good job, MobGrazer. I’d ask for a hard copy of the policy re: accepting for print letters to the editor...or any other paid piece submitted for publication. If it’s not documented, it ends up your word against their’s.
It’s very magnanimous of you to go see them again. Along with presenting to them the proof that the printed material was false, there are some other things you might want to prepare. You might consider documenting the remedies of their infraction and include any stipulations. For a printed retraction, this would include size of announcement, outlining of the statement, font style and size, ink color and placement within the publication. I’d think you would also want to approve the language they use and there should be a deadline date.
I’d get the name and title of each person present and the date you met. If necessary, you can wrap all of this up with a bow and give to legal counsel.
One bite of the apple...
Good luck!!!
Ask the paper. Local papers generally have ethical constraints for publication: they do not allow anonymous accusations of criminal behavior.
What news paper?
You can try searching for "newspaer's name" + James Hartley
Sounds like a real scam artist scum bag, that needs to be called out.
It is my hometown paper with my towns name, I'd prefer not to release it. I have the article, it is just no one seems to knows the contact information for Hartley or whether he is a real person
I did a quick search and found a newspaper reporter with that name, try it, maybe that will help lead you in the right direction
Thank you. I'll try it again, I did it pretty heavily last night. I should have given people better info knowing they would sleuth on it some. I edited my OP to add the full name he uses "James L Hartley" and the state, Missouri
Leave reviews on review sites, the BBB, scam review sites, just call him out along with his BS.
These people do this because they do not think normal people have an audience to fight back.
It is a letter to the editor in the opinion section of my hometown paper. I don't want to attack my paper for what may be them just allowing free speech.
Alternately if I were to learn it is a funded political operation and the newspaper is knows this and is publishing their propaganda in the opinion section under false pretenses...then I will go after the paper. That said I think Mark Twain has a quote about not attacking people that buy ink by the barrel.
Lol, I hear ya.
This guy? From another state but would not be uncommon for a writer to freelance for other papers remotely. https://www.star-telegram.com/profile/230977178
I don't think so. The guy in my paper doesn't write any content besides venom spewing Trump hating, or hatchet job attacks on local republican politicians.