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.
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!!!