Issue: The issue is whether the Northwest Herald the defendant, published information about Carolene Eubanks the plaintiff, that later came out to be untrue and if this was libel and an invasion of privacy against Ms. Eubanks. The Northwest Herald is a newspaper that collects e-mail reports about criminal arrests from area police departments and publishes the information. This information however, is allowed to be published considering it is public records. Carolene Eubanks was charged with theft and obstruction of justice at a local station; the information of the arrest was then emailed to the newspaper. The Herald published this information, however, the police then sent a second a correction that stated that Carolene had not been charged …show more content…
For the count of libel, the defendant did write a false statement of fact. However, since the information the paper received from the local police department was correct at the time, it was not a false statement. Additionally, for the Herald to be libel the statement would have to be about Carolene and to purposely harm her reputation. While it was about Ms. Eubanks, the newspapers purpose is not to harm reputations, but to publish criminal arrests in the area. Plus, the Herald did not see the other corrected email; if the newspaper had seen it and decided not to change the information then it would possibly be on purpose. Furthermore, the next day the newspaper published the correction. With all of that being said, she cannot prove libel and does not have a good case. For the count of invasion of privacy, the defendant would have had to intrude into private affairs and publicly disclose private facts. Since the reports the Northwest Herald receives from area police departments are public records, the defendant did not intrude in private affairs or disclose private information. Therefore, the case of invasion of privacy cannot be proven either when what was reported was public